Revision 2/10/2023:
Here I offer a reprocessed image using the original 4 panels post-mosaicizing (new word?).  So this is just post processing.  The 4 panels each had operations done on them pre-stretch, to get rid of gradients, PCC, and linear fitting after which the mosaic was stitched and then cropped.  It was this unstretched cropped mosaic that was used as the starting point for the reprocess.  I felt that I had no new data to bring into the image, so not much point in doing another stack in WBPP and remosaic.

This image was processed in a much more simple program than the original.  This being possible when employing the NXT tools from Russ Croman.  I have always liked the original as one of my favorite images, but mostly when viewed full screen.  The original has an advantage in that it is a large 4 panel mosaic and viewing full screen never lets the viewer see much of the flaws that are obvious when expanded.  These include a lot of mid/large-scale noise and posterization in intensity gradients found in some of the interesting details.  Not only that, fine detail is generally lost.  However that problem really only exists for pixel peepers and are not seen in the full-screen view.

The other challenge in the processing of the original was that the 4th panel, the one with Omi Per had only a bit more than half of the integration time as the other 3 panels.  This was a challenge in the denoise department.

Bottom line:  The NXT tools made quick work of the challenges, including a panel that was under integrated, as it were.  I find that even in the full screen view of the original, the mid/large-scale noise (seen as blotchiness in areas throughout) actually gives the appearance of image structure that actually is not there.  For example, the clouds in the bright/dark zone of the reflection nebula below Omi Per look as if there is billowing clouds there.  There is nothing to support that as real in my subs, other fine images that I have seen and also the revision I present here.  In addition, the revision, without that noise actually helps bring out true structures that are otherwise destroyed by the mid/large scale noise.  So, once again, I am tickled pink as to what can be done with the NXTs and how they simplify the processing of challenging data.  The best thing I learned about the NXTs here is that since I processed the whole 4-panel mosaic as a single image from prestretch through finish, I got to see the effects on the processing of data that was both sufficiently integrated time-wise and data that was probably less than ideal time-wise.  The NXTs did great.  And with this I feel that the final revised image looks noticeably better when viewed full-screen and remarkably better for those pixel peepers out there.  I am also confident that BXT and the other tools actually provide detail that is more true to reality than the original methods in PI that I used.  And I should mention that in others' hands, I am sure the original data would have come out great without the use of NXTs!  I have to say, that as I learned PI, the documentation that I have used, I tried to stay faithful to the processing philosophy and method.  With the old processing methods, I have often found that mid/large-scale noise pops up.  And it almost always comes about toward the end of the work, which is frustrating to no end.  So, there are no processing tools that are free of potential artifacts or fully blameless in this regard.  

I did take the liberty of bringing out the brightness of the clouds a bit by stretching a bit more in CT.  After all, I now had the ability to do so without noise issues.  But I hope that this image still conveys a darker presence, which I wanted to leave to help highlight the faint HII signal and also apparent faint blue reflection component as a halo around the HII signal behind B3.  I also tried to work out some of the star halo issues, to varying degrees of success.  I might come back and improve those at a later date.


Original:
I have always been attracted to the Perseus Molecular Cloud for its abundance of star-forming regions and reflection nebulae, all associated with widely (and wildly) varying and even colorful dark nebulae.  NGC 1333 is the epitome of this, since it contains just about everything in a colorful compact formation.  I have visited this before, but always wanted to come back to this, do it with better data, and better style, so to speak.  While investigating this area with some open skies in early October, I noted an extended dense molecular cloud system, a galactic filament of some consistency extending from 1333 all the way to oPer and IC 348.  In fact this system contained a potentially rewarding emission component (as seen in DSS2 imagery), partially masked by a neat dark pillar that appears backlit from some hidden blue star (speculation on my part, see below).  This filament and its offshoots all appear interconnected in some way and indeed various measurements place all these nebulae and star clusters at somewhere around 950-1100 light years distant.

There are too many feature in this area to spend much time writing about it all.  And others have done so on this site.  So I will concentrate, and speculate, on the wonderful semicircle of red emission nebula just west of IC 348.  Visually this red nebula (no apparent designation, though see below) is almost completely rimmed by a gun barrel bluing color that I believe to be reflection in nature.  The center of the red semicircle is impinged from the southeast with a course pillar of very dense (i.e. no starlight comes through this) dust, which itself appears to have a significant reflection component on the side facing away from us.  This is given away from the number of open channels in the pillar that allow us to see through it to blue illuminated clouds.  So what is going on here to give us this sort of mix between reflection and emission and with a long rim of reflection surrounding the whole thing?  When I examined this area with the WISE data (in particular the unWISE W2) for dust distribution, we find a striking bubble of dust here that would exceed the angular extent of the Melotte 15, IC 1805, Sh2-190, The Heart  In fact the semicircle can be extended to a circle below the dark dust lanes we see here.  The center of this bubble appears to be essentially devoid of dust, with the exception of the dark lanes in the center, which themselves may actually rise well above the bubble itself (even more speculation on my part).  However, I direct you to the following publication: A Bubbling Nearby Molecular Cloud: Complete shells in Perseus, Arce, et al., The Astrophysical Journal, 742, n.2, 2011.  I believe that this bubble/shell is listed as [ABG2011], CPS 5.  This is just above the LDN 1468 complex (our Pillar, B3).  The authors accuse the bright reddish star, just to the right center of the pillar, as being the culprit for the formation of bubble/shell CPS 5.  They appear to have the evidence, but I am not high on their conclusion.  First, it is hard to imagine that this reddish star would be illuminating blue reflection nebulae behind the dust that it is in front of, and also reaching all the way to the rim from its apparent foreground position.  Second, it is more typical for blue giant stars to excite hydrogen and thereby give us this emission nebula.  I don't see their target generating the UV required.  I cannot imagine how they could have ignored the emission component of this area, which is clearly inside the bubble/shell.  I believe that the pillar is hiding a blue giant, more typical of the situation.  The faint nature of the red emission is likely due to the starved nature of this bubble, since it has already been largely cleared of dust.  Yet there is just enough gas remaining to glow red.  But this is thin stuff here since we can see a nice fat spiral galaxy shining right through the lower right side.

Not quite 10 hrs of subs in this 4 panel mosaic.  All shot at 45 sec exposures, using the camera's High Gain Readout mode, gain 60, offset 12.  High gain, for its ability to see these sorts of clouds and short exposures to not saturate too many pixels from oPer or the reflection nebulae.  I suppose I could/should have used different capture settings to try to work the high intensity data differently than the dark stuff, but that is why I love this camera.  Not just OSC, but OS everything else too!  Weather forced me to process this mosaic with one panel being shorter of data compared to the others.  This caused me to work a bit harder.  But I am just not going to wait a year, or years to ever get the rest of the data.  I did photometric color correction and did no hue or saturation adjustments.  I did do curves transformation (RGB), but not to a great extent, just to get better contrast in the clouds.  Very little star reduction done here.  My feeling about stars in this field is that there are quite few to begin with.  And they are essential for the mind to determine depth of field and gives a somewhat 3D perception that I believe is pretty true. So rather than star number reduction, I did a bit of star size reduction, but very light on the touch.  I tried more reduction, and all it did was flatten the appearance overall.  The revision is the darker version.  For those who like really bright scenes, well this is the most you are going to ever get from me for this sort of thing.  Also, PI's halo reduction is now working again for me, and I applied it here with a very light touch.  oPer is completely surrounded by reflection nebula, and I did not want to ruin that.   I do not mind the faint rays, since this is supposed to be a very bright star.  Again, very happy with the camera.  I have to say that I do not like the way the first click view (full screen view) of my jpg images look here.  I am not sure it this is an AstroBin issue or not.  The image and stars look worse than they do from the Technical Card.  And of course the full res view is just too big.  I am open to suggestions.

This may be the last image I post for the next 5-6 months, given my location.  I only wish that I could cover much more of this area.  I will be looking for land in New Mexico during this winter.  Nuff of this stuff!