Despite now being 3.5 yrs old, this remains toughest image I've had to process to date...which really came as quite a surprise to me.
I'd been "fooled" by the more common take on M-27, which I'd processed several times before, that is largely absent the outer faint Hα and OIII shell. I'd set a goal of trying to capture at least most the Hα shell, and perhaps even some of the OIII in my Green and Blue frames. I was quite excited to see both showing up in their respective masters.
I really didn't know what I'd gotten myself into though. The difference in brightness between M27's core and those shells is a challenge in and of itself..but the rapid change from one to the other left many of the tools I thought I'd make use of unsuitable or less powerful than I'd hoped. What resulted was nearly 2 full days of frustration and facepalming, until I finally settled on a method (new and made up from whole cloth, at least for me) that produced results close to what I'd hoped for.
JPG of Red Master
JPG of Green Master
JPG of Blue Master
JPG of Hα Master
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