NGC 7380, Wizard Nebula, Hubble Palette, 3-10 Oct 2017 (David Dearden)

NGC 7380, Wizard Nebula, Hubble Palette, 3-10 Oct 2017

This is the first of several multi-day Hubble palette projects I’ve been attempting to run concurrently, trying to capture Hα, and to a lesser extent, SII, while the Moon is bright and trying to get OIII after the Moon has faded a bit. Most of the intensity in this target is in Hα. I was surprised at how little was in OIII; even less than SII, which until now has always seemed the dimmest. I had some trouble with clouds and wind during the OIII acquisition so I expect this image could be improved by getting better OIII; the image turned out a little “softer” than was probably warranted by the Hα data (at least). In addition, something changed in the camera rotation for the OIII layer so I had to crop more than I wanted to. Overall though, it’s far better than I’ve done previously on the Wizard, so I’m happy with this image.

Date: 3, 5, 10 Oct 2017

Subject: NGC 7380 (Wizard Nebula)

Scope: AT8IN + High Point Scientific coma corrector

Filters: ZWO 31 mm diameter unmounted SII, Hα, OIII (7 nm bandpass)

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

Guiding: Orion Thin Off-axis Guider + DSI +PHD 2.6.3.7 (Win 10 ASCOM) using predictive PEC algorithm

Camera: ASI1600MM-Cool, -20 °C, Gain 198 Offset 50

Acquisition: Sequence Generator Pro 3.0.0.2

Exposure: 71x300 Hα, 90x300 SII, 62x300 OIII

Stacking: Neb 4.1.6, flats & darks, trans+rot align, Nebulosity 1.5σ stack and align.

Processing: StarTools 1.4.328: Aggressively stretched and deconvoluted Hα in StarTools; was less aggressive with SII and OIII. Aligned the processed layers in Nebulosity then combined in Photoshop using Annie’s Astro Actions’ Hubble Palette module. Played with the Photoshop Channel Mixer to try and get the colors where I wanted them, then did a little layer-masked Levels work with the OIII to get rid of some unwanted blue cast and recombined the layers. AstroFrame.

Narrowband imaging
ZWO ASI1600MM/QHY163M

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Status	Advanced success
Started	...
Astrometry.net job	1764684
PixInsight job	1L98I5MJ5OD96DPEG6R4D5RAAZK6ZM20
PixInsight queue size	n/a
PixInsight stage	n/a

RA (center)	22h47m23s.253
RA (top/left)	22h50m33s.659
RA (top/right)	22h45m01s.104
RA (bottom/right)	22h44m17s.177
RA (bottom/left)	22h49m41s.790

Dec (center)	+58°03′40″.68
Dec (top/left)	+58°31′36″.41
Dec (top/right)	+58°36′13″.33
Dec (bottom/right)	+57°35′25″.64
Dec (bottom/left)	+57°30′59″.99

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