First Bicolor Narrowband Image
Astronomy

First Bicolor Narrowband Image


I have imaged various objects in just Ha before, but just got to use my OIII filter for the first time and am attempting my first bi-color processing. I am hoping to get more hours of both Ha and OIII in the coming days or weeks (whatever the weather will allow).

This is 3 hrs of Ha and an hour of OIII (yes I need more, I have trees which are preventing me from imaging this target for too long in any one night).

I think I have a method (albeit convoluted) that gets a result I like. Basically I have combined portions of all the various bicolor processing techniques I found. A little of Cannistra's, a little of JPM's tone-mapping, a little of my own mixture and PS actions and alot of layers and masks. For only 6 hrs of data (3hrs each of Ha and OIII) I think I have pulled out a good bit of detail and data, at least enough to make make me happy. I also found a balance of colors that I like (although I know with NB this is basically personal preference).



















Here is also a crop of one edge of the nebula, I am happy with how this is coming along and am hoping with more data I will really get this region especially to "pop": 


Image Details: 
Imaging Camera: Atik 314L+
Imaging Scope: Orion EON80ED
Tracking & guiding scope: Celestron CPC800XLT
Guide Camera: Starlight XPress Lodestar
Filters: Astronomik Ha 12nm, Astronomik OIII 12nm
Location: fairly dark in the middle of nowhere Suffolk, England
Set temp on camera: -5C
Preprocessed & Stacked in Nebulosity
All post processing done in Photoshop CS2




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Astronomy








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