I've been attempting to do Rho Ophiuchi with the Tamron lens, but it's just too low on the horizon from where I can put the scope right now, so I decided to do the Veil Complex instead in narrowband. I used this night and the next to get the data. I wasted some time taking luminance then realized I really want H-α and OIII for that. I also took some R, G, and B to use for adding some "true" color, at least to the stars. Processing this is going to be fun. There are lots of variations I can try. Here are two I ended up with. The first is a Hubble palette SHO image obtained using Annie’s Astro Actions to do the combining. The second takes the SHO image and blends it with RGB (layered on top with ~60% transparency) with luminance created from a 50:50 HO combination heavily stretched and sharpened. I’m not sure which I like better so I’m uploading both. I’m not fully satisfied with the star colors, but don’t know how to do them better at this point.

Date: 30-31 May 2017

Subject: Veil Supernova Complex (the Cygnus Loop)

Scope: Tamron 135 mm f/2.8 lens stopped to f/4

Filters: ZWO 31 mm diameter unmounted SII, Hα, OIII, R, G, B

Mount: EQ-6 (EQMOD 2.000j)+PEC

Guiding: 50 mm finder/guider + DSI-IIc +PHD 2.6.3.2 (Win 10 ASCOM) using predictive PEC algorithm

Camera: ASI1600MM-Cool, -20 °C, Gain 139 Offset 21

Acquisition: Sequence Generator Pro 2.6.0.23

Exposure: 11x600 SII, 11x600 Hα, 11x600 OIII, 15x180 R, 15x180 G, 15x180 B

Stacking: Neb 4.1.5, flats & darks, trans+rot align, Nebulosity 1.5σ stack and align.

Processing: Used Annie’s Astro Actions in Photoshop CC 2014 to produce a Hubble palette combination. Used StarTools 1.4.327 Wipe, Develop, Color, Deconvolute, and Track modules. Combined RGB in Neb 4 and stretched, color balanced, and sharpened in StarTools. Mixed 50:50 HαIII in Photoshop, used Wipe and aggressive Develop and Deconvolution followed by Track in StarTools. Final image layered RGB at 60% transparent over the SHO and used the HO luminance on top of that. AstroFrame.