IC1396 - Ha with OIII added (part 2 of 3)

[GordonH]

Hi

Here is part 2 of my 3 part project on IC1396. I managed to get 9x20 minutes OIII last night in between the clouds, I had to stop the imaging run twice during the night because of thick cloud coming in. I combined it with the 12x20 minutes of Ha that I got last week, I didn't use the earlier 10 sub frames of Ha as there would have been considerable cropping on the sides of the image. As mentioned before this is the first image where I have used flat field frames and I have taken my flats at approximately 80% full well capacity with matching dark frames. Again the processing was fairly simple for this image in that after calibration and stacking I colour combined in Maxim DL with 20% Ha added to 100% OIII to make the blue channel, this was then gamma stretched and converted to 16 bit tiff and transferred to Photoshop. The only processing there was levels and curves with a few iterations of contrast curve adjustments and some colour balancing. No noise reduction was used. Minor cropping was used to remove stacking effects from dithering. Equipment as before is my favourite set up of Takahashi FSQ106ED at f5, Starlight Xpress SXVF H36, Paramount ME, Astrodon 5nm NB filters, FLI PDF focuser and filter wheel, SX Lodestar and OAG for auto guiding

The Ha version can be seen in an earlier thread here or on the Nebulae 2 page of the image gallery on my website http://www.imagingtheheavens.co.uk

For those with the patience here is a link to the full resolution download

IC1396 - Elephants Trunk Nebula in Ha and OIII photo - Gordon Haynes photos at pbase.com

I am now hoping for some more clear weather (tonight, fingers crossed) to add the SII data

Thanks for looking

Best wishes

Gordon

[ollypenrice]

Now THAT's an astrophoto! Boy, it's good. The colour looks very close to RGB but you have all that narrowband contrast and tight little stars. I love it Gordon. And the sheer scale of the object beggars belief.

Olly

[Deneb]

Thats very deep, like 3d. Would not like think what part 3 is like.

Nadeem.

[xboxdevil]

Lovely image, can anyone else see what looks the face of a monkey in that picture?

[ColB]

Awesome!

[GordonH]

Lovely image, can anyone else see what looks the face of a monkey in that picture?

Hi

I haven't seen a monkey but please note that the following are definitely there

A frog jumping after a chicken

A small doll

A woman using a vacuum cleaner

Somebody digging with a shovel

A snake biting a star

Elvis

Lady Gaga by the poolside with one of her Great Danes looking on from the video "Poker Face"

Some of them are so distinctive in the Ha version you would have to be blind to miss them:D

Best wishes

Gordon

[ollypenrice]

What kind of hospital do you work in, Gordon???

Olly

[GordonH]

I'm in charge of a psychiatric on nights. Look at the full size image on the link and have a good look. There is a term for the type of drawing or art work where there are hiiden shapes and so forth but the name escapes me at the moment

Best wishes

Gordon