M42, the Orion Nebula, and NGC 1999, sometimes called the '13th Pearl Nebula', were captured over 16.8 hours through an Ha narrowband filter, and L, R, G, and B wideband filters. Imaging was from an approximately Bortle 4 location while traveling.
Pre-processing and linear processing in Pixinsight using Calibration/Integration, DBE, Local Normalization, Multiscale Linear Transform, Spectrophotometric Color Calibration, and Arcsinh Stretch. Non-linear processing included Curves for Contrast and Saturation, LRGB Combination, SCNR, and Unsharp Mask.
The intent for this project was to:
- Really dig into an HaLRGB approach
- Take advantage of a short trip to darker skies
- Capture a less common view of a common target (NGC 1999)
Overall, I'm really happy with how this came out. There are a few regrets: while I would have liked even more data, weather wasn't 100% cooperative, my flattener spacing is definitely slightly off, and I've overexposed some bright star cores. My original processing ended up noisier than I had expected, only to realize that I had forgotten to add in the Luminance data. Once that was added in, the signal ended up smoothing an incredible amount. This was a fun project and seeing NGC 1999 pop out was really rewarding.
Comments