Iris Reprocessed

[tmarkuk]

A while back I posted an Iris nebula image and mentioned that I was unhappy not to be able to see more of the dust clouds, and that I had tried a widefield image with similarly disappointing results.

Last week I made a visit to my fellow BAS member and Pixinsight user John Murphy to put together a short presentation on Pix for the society and as part of that we ran through the processing of my Iris image. It is always helpful to have a second and far more experienced pair of eyes to help you and offer advice, and the results of the changes made in my processing can be seen below.

The first is the Iris nebula from the 250mm reflector, exactly the same data as my previous post. The second is 32x8 minutes from the ZS66SD, heavily cropped to eliminate the field curvature.

*edited to fix my terrible Monday morning typing.

[johnh]

I cannot believe the same data has created this Iris with all that dust you've pulled out compared with your first effort which wasn't bad but was too dark hiding the dust. You must be delighted with this reprocess, its all in the levels and curves to bring out that darker material next to the bright nebula. The 66 shows a wider field with dust hinted at everywhere. This is a very big improvement.

John.

[mark7331]

What an amazing difference. An outstanding result. I just love the detail you've pulled out in the dust with stars peeking through a gap! Fantastic.

Mark