Celestial hemisphere:  Northern  ·  Constellation: Orion (Ori)  ·  Contains:  IC 2159  ·  Monkey Head Nebula  ·  NGC 2174  ·  NGC 2175  ·  Sh2-252
The Monkey Head Nebula (NGC 2174), lefty7283
Powered byPixInsight

The Monkey Head Nebula (NGC 2174)

The Monkey Head Nebula (NGC 2174), lefty7283
Powered byPixInsight

The Monkey Head Nebula (NGC 2174)

Equipment

Loading...

Acquisition details

Loading...

Description

For those confused about the name think of a monkey's head viewed from the side.

This was an interim target I shot while Sh2-250 was obstructed and my spring galaxy targets were too low in the east. As such I averaged about an hour of data per night on this nebula. Captured on February 2nd 7th, 14th, 27th and March 6th, 2020 from a bortle 7 zone.

---

**[Equipment:](https://i.imgur.com/BYyK1wu.jpg)**

* TPO 6" F/4 Imaging Newtonian

* Orion Sirius EQ-G

* ZWO ASI1600MM-Pro

* Skywatcher Quattro Coma Corrector

* ZWO EFW 8x1.25"/31mm

* Astronomik LRGB+CLS Filters- 31mm

* Astrodon 31mm Ha 5nm, Oiii 3nm

* Agena 50mm Deluxe Straight-Through Guide Scope

* ZWO ASI-120MC for guiding

* Moonlite Autofocuser

**Acquisition:** 6 hours 36 minutes (Camera at Unity Gain, -20°C,)

* Ha- 42x360"

* Oiii- 24x360"

* Darks- 30

* Flats- 30 per filter

**Capture Software:**

* EQMod mount control. Captured using [N.I.N.A.](https://nighttime-imaging.eu/) and PHD2 for guiding and dithering.

**PixInsight Processing:**

* BatchPreProcessing

* SubframeSelector

* StarAlignment

* [Blink](https://youtu.be/sJeuWZNWImE?t=40)

* ImageIntegration

* DrizzleIntrgration (2X, VarK 1.5)

* DynamicCrop

* DynamicBackgroundExtraction

* Deconvolution (Ha only)

* TGV/MMT Noise reduction (Ha only)

* HistogramTransformations for stretching

* Topaz Denoise AI (Ha only)

* PIxelMath to combine channels into bicolor image (formula courtesy of dreamsplease

> R=iif(Ha > .15, Ha, (Ha\*.8)+(Oiii*.2))

> G=iif(Ha > 0.5, 1-(1-Oiii)*(1-(Ha-0.5)), Oiii *(Ha+0.5))

> B=iif(Oiii > .1, Oiii, (Ha\*.3)+(Oiii*.2))

* Invert>SCNR>invert to remove magenta hue

* ColorSaturation (bring out blue in nebula core)

* [Curves]()Transformation for color adjustments

* LRGBCombination with Ha

* ACDNR

* LocalHistogramEquilization

* Several more CurveTransformations

* HDRMultiscale transformaon a clone of the image, then PixelMath combined with original image 50:50

* MorphologicalTransformation to reduce star sizes

* Annotation

Comments