Celestial hemisphere:  Northern  ·  Constellation: Cepheus (Cep)  ·  Contains:  Sh2-136  ·  VdB141
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Tortured Souls- VDB141, Chris White- Overcast Observatory
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Tortured Souls- VDB141

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Tortured Souls- VDB141, Chris White- Overcast Observatory
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Tortured Souls- VDB141

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Acquisition details

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Description

I've been drawn to the Ghost for several years now and have started imaging it each season. Weather had not allowed me to collect enough data so this has been the project that got away. I've always thought of this as "Tortured Souls." To me it looks like figures are being sucked into an eternal quagmire while a demon hover above. These souls appear to be in various stages of torment with one completely engulfed trying to break free.

This August I've had terrific skies for a change and over the last two "newish" moon periods I have managed to collect 27 hours of data. I generally don't take luminance frames, but this target is so dusty and faint that I decided I needed to try some.

I'm not very good at processing faint dust, so hopefully I'll be able to learn with this data and refine these skills. It's a real balance between details, color and noise!

C&C welcome and any advice on bringing out the dust would be great!

Comments

Revisions

    Tortured Souls- VDB141, Chris White- Overcast Observatory
    Original
    Tortured Souls- VDB141, Chris White- Overcast Observatory
    B
    Tortured Souls- VDB141, Chris White- Overcast Observatory
    C
    Tortured Souls- VDB141, Chris White- Overcast Observatory
    D
    Tortured Souls- VDB141, Chris White- Overcast Observatory
    E
    Tortured Souls- VDB141, Chris White- Overcast Observatory
    F
    Tortured Souls- VDB141, Chris White- Overcast Observatory
    G
  • Final
    Tortured Souls- VDB141, Chris White- Overcast Observatory
    H

B

Description: I tamed the stars a bit through a much more careful stretch, and pushed the dust a bit more. I also went a little lighter on NR to reduce the BG mottling.

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C

Description: Cleaned up the noise.

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D

Description: I started over, and was very careful with every step. My normal approach to processing is to not ask the data to do more than it should. I went back to this principal and really worked to balance stretch and noise and star control without getting fancy with processing. While I would have liked to see more dusty stuff, I don't think I have the data for it. This final rev is similar to the first but subtle differences I think help the image.


EDIT- Meh, upon comparing it to the original, I still like the original better... lol.

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G

Description: I revisited this data after learning some new processing techniques with a few recent dusty targets I have been imaging. This has to be one of the most challenging targets I have imaged and there is still some stuff that frustrates me, but I think I'm happiest with the most recent result. C&C welcome!

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H

Description: I revisited this old data with some new tricks I picked up from Adam Block Horizons. There is a particularly useful video on reducing Halo's using a starnet++ technique for stretching faint details and blending the stars back in. This really opened my eyes to the power of using starnett++ when processing fainter images that require more careful handling of the starfields. With more access to the dust in this field.. I hope I didnt push it too far!

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Sky plot

Sky plot

Histogram

Tortured Souls- VDB141, Chris White- Overcast Observatory

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