SH2-252 - catching monkeys (Tom Gray)

SH2-252 - catching monkeys

Revision title: HOO - processed in Siril with Astrosharp

I was able to make use of fairly clear skies, before fog obliterated everything, to catch a monkey.

SH2-252 (NGC 2174) lies around 6,300 LY in the Orion complex, and comprises a complex emission nebula, surrounding an open cluster NGC 2175.

Powered by the giant O star HD 42088 (on the monkey’s nose - monkey pox ;) stellar winds have sculptured the nebula, and produced strong ionisation fronts.

I initially set out to capture this in SHO with my SCT at f3 using a mono DSI3 camera, but gave up due to deteriorating skies, resulting in more than 2/3 of my 5m subs being wasted.

Last night I tried again, using my mobile setup with my Zenithstar at FL 545 and OSC camera, capturing dual band data with L-eNhance filter, and some RGB. If you ignore the wonky stars, from poor tracking and guiding, I’m fairly happy with the results.

Revision B has better contrast, and I’ve smoothed the colour. Your comments and opinions are always welcome.

B

Title: Contrast and smoothed

Uploaded: ...

C

Title: 50m (300s exposures) in Ha using my SCT at F3

Description: Taken the night before under poor conditions - I soon gave up due to deteriorating transparency and ground fog

Uploaded: ...

E

Title: Neanderthal...

Description: I consider myself bit of a Neanderthal when it comes to image processing. I have recently started playing with SIRIL, and must say I am immensely impressed with it - far from being neanderthal it represents bang up to date human progress. Having trialed APP in the summer, which was also very impressive, I have to say that I think SIRIL gives it a very good run, and beats it hands down when it comes to the money. Herewith my first attempt at processing using SIRIL.

PS. you may not be surprised to hear that my genetic profiles suggests I have slightly more neanderthal DNA than my fellow Caucasians. Explains a lot!

Uploaded: ...

F

Title: Astrosharpened

Description: Processed in Siril then sharpened using George Lowry's amazing Deep Sky Detail Astrosharp AI tool

Uploaded: ...

G

Title: HOO - processed in Siril with Astrosharp

Description: Using background neutralisation and non-photometric colour calibration to preserve HOO colours

Uploaded: ...

Altair Astro 183 M/C Hypercams
Optolong L-eNhance filter
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Status	Advanced success
Started	...
Astrometry.net job	8187986
PixInsight job	3PQZ72TTFFG6H3174NA45G1176CM9XLZ
PixInsight queue size	n/a
PixInsight stage	TASK_LOG

RA (center)	06h09m33s.90
RA (top/left)	06h11m54s.70
RA (top/right)	06h10m54s.89
RA (bottom/right)	06h07m12s.20
RA (bottom/left)	06h08m13s.64

Dec (center)	+20°34′27″.7
Dec (top/left)	+20°00′18″.1
Dec (top/right)	+21°18′04″.8
Dec (bottom/right)	+21°08′32″.0
Dec (bottom/left)	+19°50′51″.9

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