Celestial hemisphere:  Southern  ·  Constellation: Orion (Ori)  ·  Contains:  Flame Nebula  ·  IC 434  ·  NGC 2023  ·  NGC 2024  ·  Orion B  ·  The star Alnitak (ζOri)
Horsehead & Flame - 2020, John Robinson
Horsehead & Flame - 2020
Powered byPixInsight

Horsehead & Flame - 2020

Horsehead & Flame - 2020, John Robinson
Horsehead & Flame - 2020
Powered byPixInsight

Horsehead & Flame - 2020

Equipment

Loading...

Acquisition details

Loading...

Description

Combining RGB data with H-Alpha as LUM to produce this 6.4hour exposure. The RGB captures are from 2020 (6.4hrs) and the H-Alpha is from 2019 (15.6hrs). So I suppose you can say this is a 22hr exposure.

The H-alpha does a great job of capturing the nebula but a poor job in capturing stars (sizes). So I addressed this problem by combining the RGB stars to the H-Alpha nebula. Technique was straightforward in Pixinsight.

1) Star removal tool on H-alpha to product H-Nebula

2) Extracted lightness (black & white) from RGB, call this RGB_L

3) Star removal tool on RGB_L to product RGB_L-Nebula.

4) Star extraction of RGB_L by inverting RGB_L and adding to RGB_L-Nebula. Call this RGBStars

5) Extracted the Nebula difference between H-Neb and RGB_L-Neb. Call this Neb-Delta

6) Added Neb-Delta to RGB_L-Nebula and then added RGBStars. This is the final LUM

7) Used the new LUM file to sharpen the nebula on RGB

Comments

Sky plot

Sky plot

Histogram

Horsehead & Flame - 2020, John Robinson