NGC 3576: Beauty and Grace from Turbulence (NGC 3576: Beauty and Grace from Turbulence) (Alex Woronow)

NGC 3576: Beauty and Grace from Turbulence (NGC 3576: Beauty and Grace from Turbulence)

NGC 3576: Beauty and Grace from Turbulence

OTA: CDK 24
Camera: Moravian 61000M
Observatory: Heaven's Mirror, Chile
Date of Capture: Feb '24
Date of Processing: Feb '24

Exposures:
R: 10 x 180 sec
G: 10 x "
B: 10 x "
H: 16 x 900 sec
O: 16 x   "
S: 16 x   "
Total Exposure time: 13.5 hours
Image Width: 20 arc-minutes

Processing Tools:
1.   Commercial: PixInsight, Topaz, Photo Director 365, Radiant Photo, Aurora HDR
2.   Pixinsight Addons: NoiseXTerminator, BlurXTerminator, StarXTerminator
3.   My Scripts: NB_Assistant, AC_Restar, Subframe Weighting Tool (Excel w/ J. Hunt)

Target Description:
The radial streams, concentric loops, and the inner region of ionized OIII suggest highly active star formation in the bright center of this nebula. Studies have found high but variable expansion rates for the gasses. IR studies have identified more than 30 young stars hidden in the core of this nebula, with the star formation apparently progressing from left to right in this picture.

Processing Description:
The RGB data were used to evaluate the amount of continuum behind each SHO emission line. That continuum contribution was subtracted from the narrowband stacks, and the resulting S'H'O' were mapped to their respective RGB colors to produce the final image, which approximates the actual color of the nebula. Given the nebula is rendered in approximately its true colors, RGB stars were introduced into image A. Image B was left starless.

The detail in this rendering was boosted using a method developed for medical and biological microscope studies--I'm still in the learning stages.

For the record, the starting data were among the best quality I have ever encountered. All filters averaged about 1.5 arcseconds FWHM with minimal quality variations among subs.

Target Statistics:
Distance: 9K ly
Pixel Span at Target: 16B km

Alex Woronow

Original
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Status	Basic failed
Started	...
Astrometry.net job	9238730
PixInsight job	n/a
PixInsight queue size	n/a
PixInsight stage	n/a

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