LDN1355 “Helping Hand Nebula” in LRGB

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LDN1355 Helping Hand Nebula in LRGB, 600 sec. subframes at -25C by Takahashi FSQ-106ED with CCD Proline FLI PL16083, from Spanish IC Astronomy Observatory, Telescopelive network.

After cosmetic correction of calibrated subframes I realized 2 LRGB integration by PixInSight: the first one by Process > ColorSpaces > LRGB combination, and the second, after integrating RGB masters, by Script > Utilities > LinLRGB operating over L master and RGB just created one.

I thus proceed with a normal post production workflow for each integration: LRGB, LinLRGB, RGB and L master: bg removal,  platesolving, Spectrophotometric color calibration, Starmask, Deconvolution manual made, with Bg-mask and PSF obtained by EZdeconvolution, first denoising by EZdenoise, Stretching, 1st Dark Structure Enhancing, Starless and Stars version for each one, 2nd Dark Structures Enhancing just to starless, Color Masking and curves transformation (starless), final denosing and sharpening by NoiseXTerminator and BlurXTerminator (still just starless), .TIFF saving.

I finally rebuilt stars + starless image in Photoshop, applying adjustements to starless and star as separated layers group, melted in Lighten blending mode.

As I wasn’t satisfied nor by LRGB,

neither by LinLRGB results,

expecially because of Luminance and contrast, I thus move for another Photoshop workflow, with RGB starless and RGB stars, respectively associated to L starless and L stars luminance layer group, in luminosity blending mode, with dedicated adjustements and opacities setting.

I found this final postproduction better ther previous results, and thus move to a crop version to better focusing about LDN1355.

Astrobin: https://www.astrobin.com/qb5b5g/D/

IC342 in LRGB, single night session

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Galaxy IC342 in LRGB, single session, 2 subframes for channel, 600sec, Officina Stellare ProRC 700 with Proline FLI PL16803 at BIN2, IC Astronomy Observatory of Spain, from Telescopelive network.

A very hard postproduction because of few signal and not so good quality of data, but I really stocked into this processing.

Astrobin:

NGC7023 LBN487 Iris Nebula in LRGB

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LRGB records for LBN487 and associated cluster NGC7023 by CMOS camera QHY 600M on Takahashi FSQ-106ED from IC Observatory in Spain, Telescopelive network.

Integration I choose as final and best one obtained by RGB master and Luminance master, both star and starless, post producted in Photoshop in separated layer group with local adjustements and blending mode.

Starless section received Luminance integration at 100% opacity in lighten blending mode; stars Luminance at 10%.

RGB version is just a stunning incredible starting point for image development of this amazing stunning nebula complex.

Astrobin:

NGC7023 LBN487 Iris Nebula in LRGB Takahashi FSQ-106EDX4

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LBN487 and NGC7023 in LRGB, Takahashi FSQ-106EDX4 and Proline CCD FLI PL16083, subframes of 300sec at -25C from IC Astronomical Observatory of Spain, Telescopelive network.

I developed 3 different postproduction: an LRGB one directly developed after LRGB master integration in PixInSight.

I thus proceed to an RGB version and a final LRGB version where L channel, devided in stars and starless masters, I integrated into RGB star and starless layers group in Photoshop with different values, with stars contributing at 10% and starless Luminance at 100%.

RGB integration

Luminance starless master

Photoshop RGB and separated Luminance master available here: https://e.pcloud.link/publink/show?code=XZ9CSDZm9yOwDzwaiH2lkIx0n2x90KYsRzV

Astrobin: https://www.astrobin.com/s6a8tk/D/

Sh2-136 in LRGB

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An LRGB view for Sh-2 136 (VdB-141) reflection nebula in Cepheus.

600 seconds subframes recorded from IC Observatory in Spain by Officina Stellare ProRC 700 with Proline FLI PL16803 CCD camera at -25 celsius, retrieved from Telescopelive network.

Three different elaboration and L channel integration

Astrobin:

M33 (NGC598) Triangulum Galaxy in LRGB

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M33 from IC Spain Observatory, LRGB 600sec subframes recorded between 28/09/2021 and 16/01/2022 by Takahashi FSQ-106ED with Proline FLI PL16083 from Telescopelive network; astrobin https://www.astrobin.com/zkhypx/C/

Original widefield cropped twice

to better focusing about Galaxy.

M33 Galaxy lies among my best favourites targets and IMHO it is very difficult to be photographed.

Draco Trio in LRGB

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LRGB record of Draco galactic trio NGC5985, NGC5982 and NGC5981, from IC Astronomy Observatory of Telescopelive network, Officina Stellare ProRC 700 and Proline FLI PL16803 CCD camera, subframes of 300sec.

These galaxies are roughly 100 million light-years away. The faint, sharp-edged shells surrounding elliptical NGC 5982 suggests evidence of past galactic mergers.

Astrobin:

Barnard 150 – Seahorse Nebula in LRGB

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Barnard 150 “Seahorse” nebula in LRGB, from Almeria (Spain) Takahashi FSQ-106EDX4 (106 mm) F3.6 with CCD Proline FLI PL16083; 600″ subframes.

Amazing wider field view includes many DSO objects.

Annotated wider field view shows PGC galaxies and details.

Starless stage of image post production before Photoshop reassebling reveals nebulosity complex details and structures.

After cosmetic correction of calibrated data, I processed subframes within star registration and integrated each channel. LRGB channel combination gave the starting point master. It was processed into dynamic BG removal and after platesolving colors were calibrated by SPCC.

Deconvolution and denoise followed to thus apply color masks for a first enhancement of colors and contrast first to the whole starry file, thus to starless and stars separated flows for better result.

Final composition of image made in Photoshop; original .psd with layers groups and adjustement here available.

Sh2-129, Ou4 in SHO palette

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Sh2-129 emission nebula presents an irregular ring-arch form which resemble a figure of a flying bat, and according to Blitz et.Al. is situated at a distance of about 400 parsec or 1300 light-years.

According to Dobashi and collegues the region sourroundig Sh-129 is particularly rich of molecular clouds, first among all the whide obscure nebulositys system occulting the Milky Way in the direction of Cefeus; cfr. Dobahashi K. et Al., 1994 “Molecular Clouds in Cygnus. I. A Large-Scale 13CO Survey” – https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/1994ApJS…95..419D/abstract

George Helou and collegues [ https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/1988iras….7…..H/abstract ] studied the infrared radiation source IRAS 21168+5948 which coordinates coincide with the CO emission region, as just introduced within Avedisova Star Formation regions Catalogue; cfr. Avedisova V. S., 2002 “A Catalog of Star-Forming Regions in the Galaxy” in Astronomy Reports, vol.46 n.3: 193 – 205.

Within Sh2-129 center, recording in Oiii narrowband, is possible to enhance the vision of Ou4 nebula, whose form gave the name of squid nebula.

Discovered in 2011 by French astro-imager Nicolas Outters, the Squid Nebula’s alluring bipolar shape is distinguished by the telltale blue-green emission from doubly ionized oxygen atoms. Though apparently completely surrounded by hydrogen emission region Sh2-129, the true distance and nature of the Ou4 have been difficult to determine. 

Recent investigation suggests Ou4 really does lie within Sh2-129 some 2,300 light-years away. Consistent with that scenario, Ou4 would represent a spectacular outflow driven by HR8119, a triple system of hot, massive stars seen near the center of the nebula. 

The truly giant Squid Nebula would physically be nearly 50 light-years across.

This work is the result of personal SHO records using William Optics Redcat 51 and ASI1600mm Pro under Bortle 6 sky in Livorno – Italy (home balcony) with integration of records focused about Oiii signal obtained by Takahashi FSQ-106EDX4 and Proline FLI PL16083 camera retrieved from Telescopelive.

Data framelists set available:

here for WO51, 

and here for Takahashi106

PixInSight cored workflow for generate 2 distinguished single channel SHO masters, linear-fit by Takahashi Oiii master, each pair blended by pixelmath within final S H and O masters, channel-combined in the SHO integration.

Normal narrowband workflow post-proccessing followed ‘till reaching an SHO starless

and SHO stars separated masters.

The same workflows I took for RGB channels, with the focus on star – separated from starless final integration to be used for final image composing.

I then integrated in Photoshop by screen blending mode after necessary fixing and adjustements.

Parallely, the same workflow I made for Oiii master, using Oiii starless for enhancing Ou4 structure, luminosity and tones, in Photoshop by adjustements and colorizing filtered layer.

Integration of Oiii starless channel within SHO master enhanced luminosity, saturation and structure of Ou4 whole nebula.