Different take on M42

[R Fisher]

Set the scope up last night for a few hours on M42, Usually like this one in LRGB but had the Narrow band filters loaded, tried a few subs at different exposures with all of the filters. The final image is Ha as L, SII as Red, Hb as Green, OIII as Blue. The OIII was very strong but looks OK assigned to Blue. There is a lot of OIII detail around the main Nebula. Quite like the colour variation in this one, wasnt expecting a decent image from the NB data. will have another go and give it more time.

[MishMich]

That's really nice. It's a shame the Running Man is a bit lost - but the dark cloudy between it & M43 is quite impressive.

M.

[Tim]

The running man is a reflection nebula Michelle, I'm surprised it has shown up at all with these filters which are designed to pick up emission nebulae.

Lovely shot, the narrowband filters really bring out the structure, well worth the time spent.

[MishMich]

Sure, I appreciate that, but it is unusual not seeing it in this shot, isn't it? The dark clouds beneath came out really well, I don't think I've seen them captured quite quite so clearly. I also like the way the colours have been assigned. Very different take on a familiar object.

M.

[MartinB]

That is a joy to look at. There is obviously a load of genuine narrow band stuff in there and the detailed nebulosity is a sight for sore eyes

[R Fisher]

Not a perfect image by any means ‘Halos!’

but I did like the OIII outer region, particular the filament crossing the mid left part, spent some time trying to imagine the 3d structure.

Must admit I thought there may have been some of the reflection nebula coming through the Hb but it does seem to have been effectively blocked or overwhelmed by the other channels. Didn’t blend any Ha only used for Luminance. Surprisingly used the camera Bin1 for all channels without huge exposure times (8 400S subs for each Colour channel and 100S for Ha). Needed to do this to avoid gross overexposure of the Trapezium area.

The result was pleasing to me because it gives a slightly different perspective on a familiar object.

Thanks for the comments

[johnh]

The HBeta really makes a change from the usual, great post.

John.

[philj]

Oh I like that, theres a ton of stuff which you dont normally see. An unusual take on a familar object, great stuff

Philj

[Beyond_Vision]

It's certainly a different take on the old favourite. Some very fine detail coming through it's a lovely image.

Regards

Kevin

[Coolhandjo]

Nice. Lots of detail and it shows up areas I havn't seen before. Wonder why the halos are there?

[RobH]

I like that a lot, and a great idea using Ha as luminance only.

Did you experiment with the filter/colour combination?

The reason I ask is that with Hb being blue, and OIII being green(ish), I was wondering how it looked with that combination.

Thanks for posting this, it gives another approach to NB imaging that I for one hadn't considered

Cheers

Rob

[moocher]

That makes a refreshing change!!! Must have a bash with my Hb filter!!!!

Alan:)

[Sparrow]

That really is a different take and I really like it.

I think this is where science and art begin to firmly shake hands as companions. Even a non astronomer can't help but be impressed by the beauty in images like this as an object of art as well as science.

[R Fisher]

Thanks for all of the comments guys, appreciated.

Rob, I did start out with the intention of keeping the colours in spectrum order with OIII assigned to Green and Hb Blue but the OIII was quite strong and the resulting Green had nice detail but didn’t look right (artistic licence ?). The Hb (G) and SII ® combination also seem to enhance the centre of the Nebula.

Intend to give this one another go with the FLT132 and more time.

Cheers

[narrowbandpaul]

a great looking image, no doubt

but using Ha as luminance isnt a great idea. Think of the luminance channel as a logical AND operation. If data from the L channel appears in a colour channel, the colour is boosted, if not then the colour is attenuated

in your pallette you have used Ha=L S[iI]=R Hb=G O[iII]=B

using the AND comparison, the colour data for the R and B channels will be attenuated by use of the Ha luminance

a suggestion would be to ditch the luminance and use say S2=R Ha=G O3+Hb=B

or use L= Ha+Hb+S2+O3

these methods will not cause attenuation of colours.

also, like Rob said, thee natural choice of colour mapping would be to put the O3 to green and the Hb to blue....

that being said, its still a very nice image

paul

[RobH]

The theory of what you say sounds right Paul, but the practice seems to prove that it works fine, judging by this image.

I was once told that this would happen if I used an Ha luminance layer on top of Ha/HaOIII/OIII, and of course it did, but didn't take much sorting out during processing.

This comes from the school of thought that says NB images shouldn't have a luminance layer.

I neither agree nor disagree with this, as I see the logic, but experience has shown me that NB luminance layers in NB images can work just fine.

I suppose that, personally, although I like to know the science, I've always taken the practical approach...if it works...do it ......as someone once said...'logic is the beginning of wisdom'

I'm going to have a bash at this approach myself and see what comes up

Cheers

Rob

[resonator77]

R Fisher,

what set up was used?

pretty impressive

[R Fisher]

Set up was WO Megrez 90 with 0.8 reducer flattener on a EQ6 Pro Mount. Camera Atik 4000M with Astronomik NB Filters. Exposures all Bin1. Understand the comments on the use of the Ha Luminance; in this case was taking test images with the full NB set to determine optimum exposures and weightings, ended up with four usable channels instead of the usual two or three, more than enough effort normally J. Having experimented with a number of different combinations (conventional and experimental) settled on this one from a visual point of view and without the need to push any of the channels too much. Usually try images with and without L but the Ha (L) boosted contrast and detail in this case without affecting the rest of the image too much. I do sometimes sum the colour channels for Luminance only if all are good quality. The target and the strength / quality of the channels probabaly had a bearing on this but I love experimenting

Cheers all

[barkis]

Sure is a nice Image, and with a difference.

NB Experimentation is exciting and desirable.

Ron.