I've been wanting to capture this target for months now, patiently waiting for Orion to rise higher in the sky. My first attempts with my dslr were encouraging, but then I saw an image posted by Antlia on the
CN forums of this target. It was 16 hours on an 11" RASA f/2 with their 3.5nm Ha filter. It's amazing how much detail you can pull out with ultra narrowband filters. That picture convinced me to order their Ha filter (and eventually the O-III and S-II filters as well). Obviously my version has a lot less detail, but I'm still very impressed with what I was able to capture with my much smaller and slower scope.
I captured some L data as well, but decided not to use it. I added (linear dodge with 80% opacity) the Ha data to the R channel and also used it as an overall luminance layer. I did some local curves adjustment to the flame nebula and ngc 2023, then an additional stretch and camera raw filter adjustments in photoshop. I struggled quite a bit with the halos and had to reset my progress a few times to go back and reduce them earlier in the process. They are still there of course, but hopefully less distracting than my first few attempts.
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