Flame & Horsehead Nebulae (Peter Knight)

Celestial hemisphere: Southern · Constellation: Orion (Ori) · Contains: Flame Nebula · IC 431 · IC 432 · IC 434 · IC 435 · NGC 2023 · NGC 2024 · Orion B · The star Alnitak (ζOri) · The star σOri

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Flame & Horsehead Nebulae

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Flame & Horsehead Nebulae

Finally, for the first time in my astrophotography life I have got to image the Flame and Horsehead.
This image ticks a number of other firsts for me too. First image constructed from lights collected over multiple nights. First use of filters. First image combining lights from 2 filters (the LPro and LeXtreme) with my OSC camera.
I couldn't believe the difference the LPro made even in my reasonably clear skies. Can't believe it took me so long to take the step.
The LeXtreme was frustrating to start with and I was getting garbage from Deep Sky Stacker. Eventually it dawned on me that I simply did not have enough integration time, and the next night I increased exposure time to 300s, took loads more images and lo and behold, out popped the nebulosity.
This image is lacking some subtlety but I am posting now as a statement of where I am at at this point in time. Hopefully the refinements in processing will come and I'll see improvements next time round.

Original
Final
C

C

Description: I decided that I did not like the colours of the Flame Nebula being overridden by the Ha from the LeXtreme filter so I had a go a re-processing. Eventually I went back to scratch and started again from the stacks. This version accentuates the colours from the LPro lights for the Flame while keeping the Ha to boost the nebulosity around the Horsehead. I also managed to reduce the star halos but I'm not quite sure how.
Anyhow, on balance I think this is a better image that the original.
I welcome any comments and thoughts.

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New Zealand Astrophotography
Southern Hemisphere Astro

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Astrometry.net job	5441071
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