IC 1805 Heart of the Heart Nebula.
7 hrs total integration NB. RGB stars. 1000mm f/7.7 Quad Refractor. ASI 1600. Pixinsight RC Astro Photoshop. 5 min exposures X 83 total Narrowband filters. 30 min total 60X 30 sec RGB filters for stars. Calibration includes Bias, Dark Frame and Flat field removal. Preprocessing includes Deconvolution based sharpening, noise reduction and Star removal of each of 3 monochrome NB filters’ data. Each is brightened selectively to bring out subtle dark details, maintain contrast and dynamic range in the mid tones and protect the highlights from any more over-exposure. They are combined using the “Hubble palette” spreading them across the full RGB spectrum. Red is Sulphur II, an ionized, glowing gas. As are Hydrogen alpha, represented as green and Oxygen III shown in blue. Hydrogen, being the most prevalent atom in the universe also dominates the color of the image, turning it overwhelmingly green, aesthetically displeasing and scientifically deficient. Using a masking process concentrated on green pixels, the hues are shifted both toward the red and blue resulting in more aqua and gold in the image. It really helps show the differences and interactions of the 3 gases. And the true scientific data is in the monochrome images and really just hard numbers collected at the pixel level. So the color image is really about being a pretty picture. Which it is.
IC 1805 Heart of the Heart Nebula.
7 hrs total integration NB. RGB stars. 1000mm f/7.7 Quad Refractor. ASI 1600. Pixinsight RC Astro Photoshop. 5 min exposures X 83 total Narrowband filters. 30 min total 60X 30 sec RGB filters for stars. Calibration includes Bias, Dark Frame and Flat field removal. Preprocessing includes Deconvolution based sharpening, noise reduction and Star removal of each of 3 monochrome NB filters’ data. Each is brightened selectively to bring out subtle dark details, maintain contrast and dynamic range in the mid tones and protect the highlights from any more over-exposure. They are combined using the “Hubble palette” spreading them across the full RGB spectrum. Red is Sulphur II, an ionized, glowing gas. As are Hydrogen alpha, represented as green and Oxygen III shown in blue. Hydrogen, being the most prevalent atom in the universe also dominates the color of the image, turning it overwhelmingly green, aesthetically displeasing and scientifically deficient. Using a masking process concentrated on green pixels, the hues are shifted both toward the red and blue resulting in more aqua and gold in the image. It really helps show the differences and interactions of the 3 gases. And the true scientific data is in the monochrome images and really just hard numbers collected at the pixel level. So the color image is really about being a pretty picture. Which it is.