M16 The Star Queen (Jeff Rothstein)

M16 The Star Queen

Revision title: Narrowband Normalized

M16 is a stellar birthplace that is also the home of the most iconic dust clouds ever imaged by the Hubble Space Telescope, the Pillars of Creation. It is most commonly known as the Eagle Nebula and is typically presented with its long axis horizonal. I prefer its other title, the Star Queen Nebula. The reason for that name becomes clear when the target is rotated 90 degrees, from landscape to portrait, where you can see a woman's face looking to the left, with perhaps a crown on her head and a scarf or robe around her neck.

This replaces the version I posted last year. Last year my scope rode on a more modest mount, and my camera and filter were more modest as well. I had none of the new generation of Russ Croman's processing tools. This year both the rig and the tools have been upgraded. Though Astrobin rules prohibit posting images from two completely different data sets, this image is noticeably sharper and the colors are richer.

Original
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Final
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Title: Star Queen Detail - The Pillars of Creation

Description: Here is a close crop of the original image, showing the Pillars of Creation and the rest of the nebula's heart. I'm struck by how much detail a middling amateur can capture with today's tools.

Uploaded: ...

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Title: Increased Contrast

Description: M16 is endlessly interesting, but I think this is it for this year. This image returns to a customary palette. I've tried here to bring out the nebulosity while retaining a sense of how diaphonous the target really is. I've also tried to increase the contrast compared to Rev 1. This image marks my first test of Blanshan and Cranfield's Screen Stars script in Pixinsight.

Comments and suggestions welcome.

Uploaded: ...

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Title: Narrowband Normalized

Description: I reprocessed the data with Blanshan and Cranfield's Narrowband Normalization process, Mode 2 to retain the red Ha and cyan OIII. The contrast between the colors allowed me to leave the peripheral nebulosity a little more, well, nebulous.

Uploaded: ...

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Status	Basic success
Started	...
Astrometry.net job	8998971
PixInsight job	n/a
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M16 The Star Queen

Revision title: Narrowband Normalized

M16 The Star Queen

Revision title: Narrowband Normalized

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M16 The Star Queen

Revision title: Narrowband Normalized

M16 The Star Queen

Revision title: Narrowband Normalized

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