TheSkySearchers

This is a reprocess of an image that I did back in September. Sh2-124 is in northern Cygnus.

I recently saw a version of this nebula taken through a Hyperstar C-14 at f/2, 700mm focal length. That image was of a wider field than mine, and it showed a vast sea of background nebulosity. Even allowing for his faster focal ratio, I had enough data that I should have been able to achieve the same level of detail. My first attempt hadn't done it justice. So it was time for a reprocess.

I think I was afraid of the background the first time around because it was noisy, especially in the O3 channel. It is a really dim nebula. This time, I masked carefully and tweaked the noise reduction through the mask. That reduced it to the point where I could bring up the brightness and show off the background. I also dialed the stars down a couple of notches.

Orion 200mm f/4 Newtonian
Atik 383L+

24x 600s Ha, 1x1 (04:00:00)
23x 900s O3, 1x1 (05:45:00)
10x 120s Red, 2x2 (00:20:00)
10x 120s Green, 2x2 (00:20:00)
10x 120s Blue, 2x2 (00:20:00)

Total exposure: 10:45:00

For comparison, here is the previous version (same data):

fine redoo , thx .

I've had that happen to me many times. I just assume the background should be fairly dark when, in fact, there's a lot of cool, faint nebulosity or dust hiding in there. Great reprocess!

Larry

That's beautiful Kathy!

Hello Kathy. A very nice re-process of your SH2-124 image in HaO3RGB light. The new version is more robust with nebulosity and dust color and details. Thanks for sharing this find redo with us Kathy and keep up your great imaging and processing work.