Horsehead & Flame Nebulae_OSC

[MariusD69]

Hello!

Last night's capture. My intention was to do it several nights, but I didn't resist the temptation to see what I got. And I don't know if the weather will allowed me to continue.
The evening started well, the seeing was pretty good, transparency as well . I chose a shorter exposure than usual (3 minutes vs. 5 minutes), to keep Alnitak under control (I think one of her sisters can be seen next to her). After 22 o'clock the seeing got worse (the stars get bigger and diffused), so I made a luminance from the first 55 frames, which I applied to the color image (all 110 frames).
The camera field at the 750mm focal length is too small to cover the entire emission nebula (IC434). I chose this position to fully capture Flame Nebula (NGC2024), Horsehead dark nebula (B33), NGC2023 reflection nebula and part of IC432. Maybe I'll redo the capture with the 80mm APO, for a wide field.

Clear skies!

[yobbo89]

very good image., nice colours too.

[Baskevo]

Buttery smooth, Marius!! Amazing shot. Thank you for sharing

[STEVE333]

That's a pretty image Marius. Alnitak is such a beast! :Angry Orc:

I downloaded your image and played with the GAME script to see if the halos around Alnitak could be reduced. It actually did a pretty nice job. I can post it if you are interested.

Hope you get more clear skies soon.

Cheers,
Steve

[MariusD69]

Thanks guys.
@Steve Let's see it!

[STEVE333]

OK Marius - Here is what some work with the GAME Script in PixInsight can do. For Alnitak I used the GAME script twice: Once to reduce the large area halo, then, a second time to reduce the smaller bright halo around the core. A similar approach was used on Sigma Ori in the upper right corner. Once the halos were reduced an S-curve in CurvesTransformation was used to slightly lower the background and increase contrast.

The ORIGINAL is also shown for comparison.

REPROCESS



ORIGINAL


The GAME Script is easy to use and can be quite helpful. It worked well for this case.

Thanks for letting me "play" with your nice data.

Cheers,
Steve

[MariusD69]

Great job, Steve! I tame a little the highlights in PS (Shadow/ highlight module), but without selection, it affects the Flame too.