Happy 2023! A "bubble drop" rather than a Times Square "ball drop". :-)
I have been messing with this stack for a while now. Capture was through most of October 2022, with nearly 42hrs total capture eventually.
I was really unhappy with the sharpness for a long time. But along came Russell Crowman's magical BlurXTerminator in December, and that was transformative. It allowed me to finish this image.
https://www.rc-astro.com/I also experimented with different dynamic SHO combinations for this presentation, ultimately landing on ForaxX's variant SHO:
https://thecoldestnights.com/2020/06/pixinsight-dynamic-narrowband-combinations-with-pixelmath/The stars were challenging, and the key central BD+60°2522 that creates the bubble is a compromise. The ring around it is diminished, but ultimately not eliminated. I'm glad to have got some detail on the central cloud to its right.
This was also my first successful (IMO!) use of the Generalized Hyperbolic Stretch in PI, now as a process. I've been trying it for weeks with little satisfaction, originally in its script format, but I think I finally now have a recipe that works for me.
Somewhat sadly, this was the first time I've not used the wonderful EZ suite from darkarchon since it was released. I have not given up on it! But perhaps a "graduation", of sorts?
I'm still on the fence about RGB stars, so this one again omits. I had other priorities for this image. I may revise in due course, but for now, on to other targets!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NGC_7635https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BD%2B60%C2%B02522
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