I had really intended to put some RGB with these data, and had thought perhaps these nebulae would show up more in OIII and SII (they show up great in Hα). In addition I’ve been having problems with flats for the Tamron 135 mm lens, so as a result I procrastinated and didn’t get these data processed until today. My flats are a little bit better now. I tried both SHO (Hubble palette) and HSO color renditions, and even though it seems like the HSO usually gets a more positive response, I think I prefer the SHO because it better highlights the structure in the nebulas. This could certainly use more data, but overall this image is much better than any of my previous attempts on these targets.

Date: 4 Aug & 30 Nov 2017

Subject: Sh2-199 (Soul Nebula), IC 1805 (Heart Nebula)

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

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

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

Guiding: Orion 9x50 Finder/Guider + DSI IIc +PHD 2.6.4.5 (Win 10 ASCOM) using predictive PEC algorithm

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

Acquisition: Sequence Generator Pro 3.0.0.4

Exposure: 36x300 Hα, 30x300 SII, 26x300 OIII

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

Processing: StarTools 1.4.328: Used StarTools’ “Wipe” module to correct for vignetting remaining after flat correction, then stretched and deconvoluted each channel separately in StarTools. Most aggressive deconvolution in the Hα channel, because not much structure showed up with the other two filters. Aligned the processed layers in Nebulosity then combined in Photoshop using Annie’s Astro Actions’ Hubble palette and RGB modules. A few rounds of Photoshop Curves and Levels, then Deep Space and Space Noise Reduction (layer masked to prevent loss of detail in the nebulas) and one or two rounds of Carboni’s Make Stars Smaller. AstroFrame.