NGC 2264, Christmas Tree Cluster/Cone Nebula (David Dearden)

NGC 2264, Christmas Tree Cluster/Cone Nebula

2600 Ly

After a too-long hiatus caused partially be weather and partially by laziness/busyness, I finally got some new imaging done. I’ve been eyeing this target since before Christmas after showing an older image to my class at final exam time and thinking “I can do better on this!” Given a limited amount of imaging time and knowing this area has a lot of Hα emission, I decided to do it using Hα for the R channel and G and B filters to complete the color palette. I also used the Hα for luminance. I think it did turn out better than my best previous attempt; it is certainly framed better.

Date: 20-21 Feb 2020

Subject: NGC 2264, Christmas Tree Cluster/Cone Nebula

Scope: AT8IN+High Point Scientific Coma Corrector

Filters: ZWO 31 mm diameter unmounted 7 nm Hα, G, B

Mount: EQ-6 (EQMOD 2.000j)+PEC

Guiding: Orion Thin Off-axis Guider + ASI120MM-mini +PHD 2.6.7 (Win 10 ASCOM)

Camera: ASI1600MM-Cool, -20 °C, Gain 139 Offset 21

Acquisition: Sequence Generator Pro 3.1.0.452

Exposure: 48x300 Hα, 45x120 G, 43x120 B

Stacking: Deep Sky Stacker 4.2.2 (64-bit) dark+flat+bias, κ-σ stacking with κ = 1.5.

Processing: StarTools 1.6.387: For Hα, software binned 2x2, cropped, autodev, HDR optimized “hard”, deconvoluted, and untrack denoised (grain elimination). Combined Hα as R, G, & B in StarTools, boosting the R on combination. 2x2 software binned, cropped, autodev, HDR optimized “soft,” color module with some saturation boost. Deconvoluted and untrack denoised (grain elimination). In Photoshop, applied Hα as luminance layer at 50% opacity, and used a layer mask to remove this luminance layer in the area of the Foxfur Nebula. Slight levels and curves. AstroFrame.

Final
Original
B

B

Description: Stretched a bit more. This version seems a bit over-processed to me, so I think I prefer the original.

Uploaded: ...

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ZWO ASI1600MM/QHY163M

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Status	Advanced success
Started	...
Astrometry.net job	3271193
PixInsight job	HTIHSWSOYTCLF8AMURO8P1UZ8GUSDSVJ
PixInsight queue size	n/a
PixInsight stage	n/a

RA (center)	06h41m04s.82
RA (top/left)	06h42m49s.73
RA (top/right)	06h42m47s.29
RA (bottom/right)	06h39m19s.90
RA (bottom/left)	06h39m22s.67

Dec (center)	+09°45′28″.0
Dec (top/left)	+09°12′19″.3
Dec (top/right)	+10°19′00″.5
Dec (bottom/right)	+10°18′30″.1
Dec (bottom/left)	+09°11′53″.8

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