Celestial hemisphere:  Southern  ·  Constellation: Dorado (Dor)  ·  Contains:  HD269644  ·  HD269678  ·  HD269682  ·  HD269684  ·  HD269689  ·  HD269690  ·  HD269698  ·  HD269702  ·  HD269713  ·  HD269714  ·  HD269717  ·  HD269723  ·  HD269724  ·  HD269726  ·  HD269733  ·  HD269771  ·  HD269777  ·  HD269789  ·  HD269797  ·  HD269808  ·  HD269810  ·  HD269811  ·  HD269827  ·  HD269833  ·  HD269835  ·  HD269841  ·  HD269845  ·  HD269847  ·  HD269861  ·  HD269871  ·  And 12 more.
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NGC 2029 - an emission nebula in Dorado, part of the LMC - RGB enhanced with Ha & OIII, Niall MacNeill
NGC 2029 - an emission nebula in Dorado, part of the LMC - RGB enhanced with Ha & OIII, Niall MacNeill

NGC 2029 - an emission nebula in Dorado, part of the LMC - RGB enhanced with Ha & OIII

Getting plate-solving status, please wait...
NGC 2029 - an emission nebula in Dorado, part of the LMC - RGB enhanced with Ha & OIII, Niall MacNeill
NGC 2029 - an emission nebula in Dorado, part of the LMC - RGB enhanced with Ha & OIII, Niall MacNeill

NGC 2029 - an emission nebula in Dorado, part of the LMC - RGB enhanced with Ha & OIII

Equipment

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Acquisition details

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Description

With the excellent dataset I have for NGC 2029 across broadband LRGB and narrowband SHO, I have been exploring different ways of presenting the data. The original LRGB image shown in Revision B shows what we see in the visible spectrum. I was suprised at how subdued the red from Ha was in this image. I then used Vicent Peris' methodology to enhance the red channel of the RGB image (Revision C). This shows the amazing profusion of hydrogen gas through the region. However in bringing it out so much in the image, the subtle blue, particularly from OIII, was washed out and in this area, overlapping with the red of the Ha, came out white. It was suggested to me by several people that I should see what I could to highlight the Ha without losing the blue. To start off I thought it would be useful to repeat the exercise with Ha, by doing the same for OIII. However, again per Vicent Peris' methodology, the enhancement takes place in both the Green and Blue channels. This beautifully brought through the teal colour of the OIII and is seen in Version D. I also show that a as mouse-over since it is a new image. I then set about combining the Ha enhanced image with the OIII enhanced image in such a way as to avoid the blue being lost. A straight blend of the two images is shown as Version F and whilst a nice image, once again the blue-green of the OIII mostly comes out white. 
I decide the best way to combine the images was to mask the OIII enhance blue-green areas so that the red from the Ha would not drown them out. I created a Blue mask and a Cyan mask using the Color Mask script in PixInsight and added these together with PixelMath. The resultant mask is shown in Version E and it nicely maps the teal areas of OIII. Again using Pixel Math I added the Ha enhanced image masked with an inverted Blue-Cyan mask to the OIII image masked with the Blue-Cyan mask.
I hope you think the result brings through both the Ha and OIII nebulosity in an RGB image. It certainly makes the image more dramatic.
The aquisition details are available in the other images from this series.

Comments

Revisions

  • Final
    NGC 2029 - an emission nebula in Dorado, part of the LMC - RGB enhanced with Ha & OIII, Niall MacNeill
    Original
  • NGC 2029 - an emission nebula in Dorado, part of the LMC - RGB enhanced with Ha & OIII, Niall MacNeill
    B
  • NGC 2029 - an emission nebula in Dorado, part of the LMC - RGB enhanced with Ha & OIII, Niall MacNeill
    C
  • NGC 2029 - an emission nebula in Dorado, part of the LMC - RGB enhanced with Ha & OIII, Niall MacNeill
    D
  • NGC 2029 - an emission nebula in Dorado, part of the LMC - RGB enhanced with Ha & OIII, Niall MacNeill
    E
  • NGC 2029 - an emission nebula in Dorado, part of the LMC - RGB enhanced with Ha & OIII, Niall MacNeill
    F

B

Description: Original LRGB image

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C

Description: HaRGB image

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D

Description: OIII enhanced RGB image

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E

Description: Blue-Cyan mask

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F

Description: A 50:50 blend of Ha and OIII enhanced RGB images

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Sky plot

Sky plot

Histogram

NGC 2029 - an emission nebula in Dorado, part of the LMC - RGB enhanced with Ha & OIII, Niall MacNeill