Own Nebula (M97) - RGB + HOO (Meeps51)

Own Nebula (M97) - RGB + HOO

Revision title: Own Nebula (M97) in RGB - close-up

An effort over more than a month (March 10, 2024 - April 10, 2024) as I got to know the CDK17 + ASI461 better.

My original intent was to capture about 10 hrs of narrowband (HSO) data per channel and then composite with RGB stars later. Unfortunately, I had put my filters in backwards (LRGBHSO -> LOSHBGR) and therefor the first half of my data ended up being RGB instead of HSO. When I finally took some sky flats, I realized the mistake and fixed the filter mappings and took a few more hours on each channel (~4 hrs of broadband and ~4 hrs of narrowband). However, because I did the original RGB at 10m subs and the HSO at 10m subs, the results are kind of interesting (a bit overexposed for the Nebula but lots of beautiful star colors). I ended up liking the RGB result which is the v0 here (my NB + RGB skills aren't the best). In each set of data, there is not enough contrast to really make out the eyes - so I think that if I was reimaging, I'd aim for shorter subs.

The thing that most stood out to me though in the RGB data - were the number of galaxies all around the Nebula! This is more obvious when you look at the starless version:

And I thought this as just too cool and a testament to what a big sensor and excellent optics could reveal:

Original
B
Final
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B

Title: Own Nebula M97) - RGB stars with HOO Nebula combined

Description: This version leverages the broadband data (still pretty noisy, not enough contrast) but with the beautiful RGB stars. I like the RGB only version more and ended up making that the core revision.

Uploaded: ...

C

Title: Own Nebula (M97) in RGB - close-up

Description: One of the great things about a big sensor on a long focal length OTA is that you can get both the close details (here) and the wider perspective through one round of imaging. I liked this crop as it has the awesome galaxy details, stars and the Nebula zoomed in!

Uploaded: ...

All Images
Nebula
Remote Observatory - New Mexico

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Deep sky
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Extremely wide field
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Backyard
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Professional, scientific grade data
Mix of multiple sources
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Status	Advanced success
Started	...
Astrometry.net job	9661503
PixInsight job	M8AH8WCC0MR21ELC132XWBW82I03PL63
PixInsight queue size	n/a
PixInsight stage	TASK_LOG

RA (center)	11h14m47s.770
RA (top/left)	11h14m32s.928
RA (top/right)	11h13m50s.685
RA (bottom/right)	11h15m02s.510
RA (bottom/left)	11h15m45s.620

Dec (center)	+55°01′06″.81
Dec (top/left)	+55°10′12″.30
Dec (top/right)	+54°56′38″.77
Dec (bottom/right)	+54°52′02″.90
Dec (bottom/left)	+55°05′33″.28

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