Celestial hemisphere:  Northern  ·  Constellation: Draco (Dra)  ·  Contains:  Cat's Eye Nebula  ·  IC 4677  ·  NGC 6543  ·  NGC 6552  ·  PK096+29.1
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Cat's Eye Nebula, Kevin Covey
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Cat's Eye Nebula

Getting plate-solving status, please wait...
Cat's Eye Nebula, Kevin Covey
Powered byPixInsight

Cat's Eye Nebula

Equipment

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Acquisition details

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Description

I collected the data for this nebula in July 2021. My goal was to have RGB and narrowband data for the nebula, but also have the detail of the core be visible. The core gets blown out very easily, so I captured data for each filter at multiple durations.

L = 32 x 30s, 30 x 60s, 28 x 600s
R = 30 x 180s, 16 x 300s, 12 x 600s
G = 30 x 150s, 9 x 600s
B = 30 x 120s, 11 x 600s

Ha = 17 x 600s, 17 x 1800s
OIII = 19 x 300s, 15 x 600s, 18 x 1800s

As it turns out, my shortest duration for each filter was still too much. I ended up using this data in its linear state without even stretching it.

I used pixinsight to calibrate all the data, muir denoise, and DBE. I used HDRcomposition to combine all of the data for each filter into a single HDR image for each filter. After that I combined the HDR RGB data.  I used pixelmath and a gradient mask to write the 30 second un-stretched luminance data into the HDR luminance data. I used the GAME script to create the gradient mask, approximately 3x the diameter of the core. I made a clone of the HDR luminance data to use in the next step. Using the gradient mask over the center of the core, to protect all other areas of the HDR Luminance image, I used pixelmath to write the 30 second un-stretched luminance data into the HDR luminance image. This also created a dark halo gradient extending from the core. So I inverted the gradient mask, and wrote the HDR luminance clone onto the HDR luminance image. This (mostly) restored the HDR luminance data, leaving behind a core that was not blown out.
  For the narrowband data, I stretched it and removed the stars using starXterminator. 
I took the core-modified HDR luminance image, the RGB image, and both the starless HA and starless OIII into Photoshop. From there I added the Ha mapped to red, and the OIII mapped to a teal color to the RGB data. I then used the HDR luminance image as luminosity. 
The final step was to take a core-only RGB image comprised of the shortest duration for each filter and blended it into the center of the LRGBHaOIII image to provide a little more color to the core.

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Cat's Eye Nebula, Kevin Covey