I captured 50 – 5 minute subframes of each Ha and Oiii. I also captured some Sii data, but ran into cloudy weather and decided to come back to a SHO version later.
I wanted to try the red and blue version I have seen frequently. This version typically only uses Ha and Oiii and maps it as a bi-color image as follows: Red=Ha, Green=Oiii, Blue=Oiii (HOO). This is exactly what i have done here as a first draft. You can see the stacked Ha and Oiii data below:
Ha data channel Oiii data channel
Below, you can see the bi-color results. I pushed version 1 of the bi-color image too far. The colors are over the top, but stand out. I didn’t really know how deconvolution worked and I applied it at the end didn’t adjust for the dark rings that it created.
bi-color version 1 – ngc 6992 eastern veil nebula bi-color version 2 – ngc6992 eastern veil nebula
I started over with version 2 after researching how deconvolution works and I think the image does have more detail and no dark rings. This tutorial by Richard Bloch was very helpful for me to experiment with deconvolution in PixInsight: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZLef9GlHLrs
I’m still not sure how far to push the star removal. I prefer the more natural version 2 even though I do like a sharper black and reduced star background some folks achieve. I’m sure i’ll come back to this one again.
imaging camera | ZWO ASI 1600MM Pro |
guide camera | ZWO ASI290mm Mini |
mount | Skywatcher EQ6-R pro |
telescope | Explore Scientific ED102 APO |
exposure settings | 300s -15C gain 139 |
stacking | 50 lights (Ha) 50 lights (Oiii) 10 lights (Sii) 30 darks 30 flats 30 dark flats |
processing | PixInsight |