Celestial hemisphere:  Northern  ·  Constellation: Cepheus (Cep)  ·  Contains:  NGC 7380
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The Wizard Nebula in HaRGB, Trevor Jones
The Wizard Nebula in HaRGB
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The Wizard Nebula in HaRGB

Getting plate-solving status, please wait...
The Wizard Nebula in HaRGB, Trevor Jones
The Wizard Nebula in HaRGB
Powered byPixInsight

The Wizard Nebula in HaRGB

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Description

I have seen a lot of amazing images of the Wizard Nebula this summer. Some of the best ones were in Narrowband using the Hubble Pallete.

My version attempts to retain some of the natural color of this nebula - although it's definitely pushed hard in the red department.

I am SUPER happy with the Altair Hypercam 183C these days, now that I've figured out it's strengths and weaknesses. Specifically - I think that for emission nebula, an HaRGB composite is a must to do the object justice. (From my light polluted backyard anyway) Getting my hopes up for a pleasing RGB-only version has lead to some letdowns.

I think I have found the sweet spot. RGB exposures of about 90-120s (Gain 60%, Bin 2x2) - with added H-Alpha exposures of 180-240s. This seems to keep the noise at bay (This is not a TEC camera!), but captures some solid signal.

As always, more time soaked into this project would have helped the SNR - but hey, a guys gotta go to work in the morning;)

The image sets were stacked using Deep Sky Stacker Each image (Ha, RGB) was then processed separately in Adobe Photoshop CC

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The Wizard Nebula in HaRGB, Trevor Jones