Description:

This image consist of 12h of Ha data taken from my backyard (bortle 6/7) and about 3h of RGB data taken from a bortle 1 dark site.

Here I have just tried to do a natural and classic image processing of the Flame and Horsehead nebula. I attempted this a year ago when I didn't really know what I was doing and unfortunately in narrowband you do not get any of these beautiful blue reflection nebulae...so I was really looking forward to shooting some RGB data from a dark site so I could finally complete this image properly.

The Flame Nebula, also known as NGC 2024, is a bright emission nebula located in the constellation Orion. It is located just to the south of the Horsehead Nebula, which is a famous dark nebula that is visible in the same region of the sky.

The Flame Nebula gets its name from its orange and red appearance, which is caused by glowing hydrogen gas that has been excited by the radiation from nearby young, hot stars. The nebula is located about 1,500 light-years away from Earth and is about 30 light-years wide.

The Horsehead Nebula, also known as Barnard 33, is a small, dark nebula that is located in the constellation Orion. It is a popular target for amateur and professional astronomers because of its distinctive shape, which is caused by a dense cloud of gas and dust that is blocking the light from the glowing hydrogen gas behind it.

The Horsehead Nebula is located about 1,500 light-years away from Earth and is about 3 light-years wide. It is a part of the larger Orion Molecular Cloud Complex, which is a region of active star formation. The nebula is named for its shape, which resembles the head of a horse.Both the Flame and Horsehead Nebulas are located in the Orion constellation, which is one of the most recognisable and well-known constellations in the night sky.

It is visible in the Northern Hemisphere during the winter months and summer months in the Southern Hemisphere and is easily recognisable due to the three bright stars that form a belt in the centre of the constellation.

Processing:

Anyone who has attempted to shot this target with a 1600mm pro would appreciate how difficult it is to deal with the micro lensing effects caused by the Panasonic sensor on Alnitak.

At my focal length is was extremely bad in the RGB data...


Thankfully it wasn't too bad in the Ha layer.


And when using star exterminator, Alnitak was clean in the Ha star only layer.

So after removing the halo and snow flake effect in the RGB layer as much as I could I created a luminance layer from the starless Ha and screen blended all the reflection nebulae into the Ha to create a master luminance. When using using layer as a luminance on top of the RGB data the halo and micro-lensing effect was gone.

Then I had to use Starspike Pro to give Alnitak back its blue soft glare effect.... 

When there is a will there is a way... but I would much rather not have the problem in first place.... My next step is to save up and get either a Zwo 2600mm or a QHY268