It started with a crazy idea, now it has a life of its own.

Using an unorthodox combination of multiple data sets from a wide range of focal lengths, telescopes, OCS and mono Cameras.

Started out with a "why not", but was an extremely surprising result, thanks to a great group of astrophotographers that jumped on board provided me with amazing sets of data. 
Thank you guys @URSAMO, @MikeY_Astro ​​@Mau_Bard , and special thanks to @Mark Ellis (your data was the backbone of this project).

The Process: Initially I was combining the separate channels using pixel math after rescaling them, this gave great results. After getting the final data set, I decided to stack the master files using APP, this yielded a slightly better result, which leads me to believe that stacking the lights would have produced an even better result.

The addition of each dataset introduced subtle alterations to the image. The long focal data set contributed significantly to fine details, while the shorter focals enhanced Signal-to-Noise Ratio (SNR) and accentuated the details, albeit in a nuanced manner.

One of the fascinating things for me to see was how distinct each channel was from the other.




With that I leave you with a photometric analysis provided by @URSAMO


Here we have the color histograms for the red, green, and blue channels of the image. The x-axis represents pixel intensity values ranging from 0 to 255, and the y-axis represents the frequency of each intensity value within the image.

From the histograms, we can observe the following:

The red channel histogram has a broad spread of intensities, indicating a wide range of red tones in the image, which is expected given the H-alpha and SII emissions that often dominate astrophotographs of nebulae.
The green channel histogram is less spread out than the red, suggesting fewer variations in the green tones. This could be due to the SII data being mapped to the green channel.
The blue channel histogram shows a different distribution, likely due to the OIII emissions that are typically mapped to blue in the Hubble Palette.


The intensity profile graph above displays the variation in pixel intensity along a horizontal line that cuts through the center of the image. The line profile is shown for each color channel (red, green, and blue), and it allows us to see the changes in brightness across the nebula.

Key observations from the profile:

Peaks in the profile indicate bright regions, which could be stars or areas of the nebula with higher emission.
The fluctuations in the graph represent the structure within the nebula, such as the edges of gas clouds or dust lanes.
The intensity values for each color channel can help infer the presence of different elements, as each narrowband filter used in capturing the image is specific to certain emissions (H-alpha, OIII, SII).



Here are the color histograms for the red, green, and blue channels of the image. These histograms show the distribution of pixel intensity values for each color channel. The x-axis represents the range of possible pixel values (from 0 to 255 for an 8-bit image), and the y-axis represents the count of pixels for each intensity value.
From the histograms, we can observe the following:
The Red Channel Histogram shows a peak in the lower intensity values, which indicates that there are many darker pixels in the red channel, likely corresponding to the darker areas of the image or the background sky.
The Green Channel Histogram also shows a peak in the lower intensities, similar to the red channel, with a broad distribution which might be from the varying brightness of the nebula and stars.
The Blue Channel Histogram displays a distribution that also peaks at lower intensities but extends further into the higher intensities, which could represent regions of the image with strong oxygen emission or the presence of hotter stars.



The histogram above shows the distribution of mean pixel intensities for detected star-like objects in the image. The x-axis represents the mean pixel intensity of these objects, which is a rough estimate of their brightness, while the y-axis represents the count of objects with a particular brightness.

We can see a range of brightnesses, with most detected stars having a mean pixel intensity above 190. The peak around the higher intensities suggests that there are a number of very bright stars or stellar objects in the image.



The graph above illustrates the variation in noise levels across different regions of the image. Each point represents the standard deviation of pixel values within a region, which is a proxy for the noise level in that region.

Observations from the graph:

Fluctuations in noise levels indicate that some regions of the image have higher noise variability. These could correspond to areas with more detail or brighter features, which would naturally have a higher standard deviation.
Lower values generally suggest smoother areas with less noise or less variation in pixel intensity, which might be darker or more uniform parts of the background sky.
Spikes can represent either regions with actual higher noise or regions where there are bright stars or nebula features that increase the standard deviation but are not noise in the traditional sense.

Data Contributions ( 137h 53' ) :

Processing: Ahmed Wegdan

Mark Ellis : 33h 25′ Oct. 27, 2023 ·  Oct. 28, 2023 ·  Oct. 29, 2023 ·  Oct. 30, 2023 ·  Oct. 31, 2023
Backyard, Arizona, United States

Planewave CDK14 ---- QHYCCD QHY268 Pro M ---- Planewave L-350

Chroma H-alpha 3nm Bandpass 50 mm: 135×300″(11h 15′) (gain: 56.00) -10°C bin 1×1
Chroma OIII 3nm Bandpass 50 mm: 134×300″(11h 10′) (gain: 56.00) -10°C bin 1×1
Chroma SII 3nm Bandpass 50 mm: 132×300″(11h) (gain: 56.00) -10°C bin 1×1

Mark Ellis  : 22h 40'   Oct. 24, 2021
Backyard, Arizona, United States

Askar FRA600 ---- ZWO ASI6200MM Pro ---- Sky-Watcher EQ8-RH

Optolong H-Alpha 3nm 2": 114×300″(9h 30′) (gain: 100.00) -10°C bin 1×1
Optolong OIII 3nm 2": 80×300″(6h 40′) (gain: 100.00) -10°C bin 1×1
Optolong SII 3nm 2": 78×300″(6h 30′) (gain: 100.00) -10°C bin 1×1

Mau_Bard :  21h 23′  Oct. 16, 2022 ·  Oct. 17, 2022 ·  Sept. 17, 2023 ·  Sept. 20, 2023
Backyard observatory, Vienna, Austria

TS-Optics 200mm/8" UNC f/5 Newtonian ---- ZWO ASI2600MC Pro ---- Sky-Watcher EQ6-R Pro

Antlia ALP-T Dualband 5nm SII&Hb 2": 47×480″(6h 16′)
Optolong L-Pro 2": 7×300″(35′)
Optolong L-eXtreme 2": 109×480″(14h 32′)

URSAMO:  24h 50′  Nov. 9, 2023 ·  Nov. 10, 2023 ·  Nov. 11, 2023 ·  Nov. 12, 2023
Al Sadeem Observatory, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates

William Optics ZenithStar 61ii / ZS61ii ---- ZWO ASI2600MC DUO ---- ZWO AM5

Radian Triad Tri-band 2": 149×600″(24h 50′)

MikeY_Astro: 22h 55'  Nov. 4, 2023 ·  Nov. 7, 2023 ·  Nov. 8, 2023 ·  Nov. 10, 2023
Backyard, California, USA

Stellarvue SVX080T-3SV ---- QHYCCD QHY268 M ---- ZWO AM5

Antlia 3nm Narrowband H-alpha 36 mm: 84×300″(7h)
Antlia 3nm Narrowband Oxygen III 36 mm: 92×300″(7h 40′)
Antlia 3nm Narrowband Sulfur II 36 mm: 99×300″(8h 15′)​​​​

Ahmed Wegdan: 12h 42′  Nov. 16, 2023 ·  Nov. 17, 2023
Wadi El-Hitan National reserve, Fayoum, Egypt

Askar FRA400 ---- Player One Poseidon-M Pro ---- ZWO AM5

ZWO Luminance 36 mm: 21×120″(42′)
ZWO Luminance 36 mm: 8×300″(40′)
ZWO Red 36 mm: 6×300″(30′)
ZWO Blue 36 mm: 6×300″(30′)
ZWO Green 36 mm: 6×300″(30′)
ZWO H-alpha 7nm 36mm: 11×600″(1h 50′)
ZWO S-II 7nm 36 mm: 17×600″(2h 50′)
ZWO O-III 7nm 36mm: 31×600″(5h 10′)