Celestial hemisphere:  Northern  ·  Constellation: Cepheus (Cep)  ·  Contains:  HD215867  ·  IC 1454  ·  PK117+18.1
Getting plate-solving status, please wait...
IC1454 - Abell 81, Dale Penkala
Powered byPixInsight

IC1454 - Abell 81

Revision title: Added more contrast

Getting plate-solving status, please wait...
IC1454 - Abell 81, Dale Penkala
Powered byPixInsight

IC1454 - Abell 81

Revision title: Added more contrast

Equipment

Loading...

Acquisition details

Loading...

Description

This image has proven to be the most challenging image to process for me so far. In doing some research it has a very strong OIII signal. (my data certainly showed this to be true) The inner part of the nebula was very easy to pull even though it was only 14.5 magnitude, however the outer  "halo" if you will was extremely difficult even when using my new Antlia ALP-T filter. To do that I extracted the OIII data in APP.  I also created a synthetic SII which showed a little bit different than the OIII channel so I did a blend of the 2 in pixel math for my final OIII channel that I then used to incorporate into the nebula to help bright out more detail as well as show the halo better. I also used a very slight HDR Multi Trans in PI to bring out the detail of the inner core .

My initial image was color mapped to with Ha/red SII/green and OIII/blue. 

Stars were screeched/processed separately to help out with the halos around the brighter stars. I also processed the galaxy separately as well though I wasn't to picky on that. Stars were also Photometrically Color Calibrated.

These 3 layers were then combined in PI and moved over to Gimp where I did some small tweaks and used the starless layer as a luminance to help accent the outer halo. I added a bit of blue and red as I found that it helps with contrast to the core of the nebula.

What you see is the final result of my process summery. I processed this 6-7 different times and wasn't able to get anything I liked enough to post. I finally decided to just work on 1 thing at a time and then combine them back together.

Something I have noticed is my image shows the outer "halo" to not be quite as symmetrical as a couple other images I've seen. I don't know if this is due to maybe a misalignment in APP & PI (processed in both & they still showed the same) or something changed (hard to believe) or soemthing goofy in my optical train?? but my halo is different and I think shows some structure within it.

Hope you like the results and as always I welcome any and all comments!

Comments

Revisions

  • IC1454 - Abell 81, Dale Penkala
    Original
  • IC1454 - Abell 81, Dale Penkala
    B
  • Final
    IC1454 - Abell 81, Dale Penkala
    C

B

Title: Cropped and Reprocessed as a Portrait

Description: In an attempt to pull out more detail within the outer ring/halo, I used 4 masked stretches each being stretched little more each time, then combined them in pixel math. I did add a tad bit of color to help bring out the details within the nebula.
Then I did some final tweaks in Gimp.

Uploaded: ...

C

Title: Added more contrast

Uploaded: ...

Sky plot

Sky plot

Histogram

IC1454 - Abell 81, Dale Penkala