NGC 3576 variations

[Benjamin (Ben)]

Very little data (under 2 hours) so figure something to experiment on. The rather colourful and starless versions are what they are but I was trying to work out what a faithful representation of narrowband data might be, with the intention that Ha is red (online sources suggest bright red?), SII being a darker red and OIII as a cyan of sorts. When the cyan mixes with the red this seems to result in a yellowish brown... really no idea with this....the red seems quite orange too?

Skywatcher f4 8" Quattro Newtonian
ZWO ASI2600MM-Pro
Skywatcher EQ6-R
Astronomik: 6nm Ha (13x180s), 6nm OIII (16x180s), 6nm (10x180s)
https://www.astrobin.com/full/1ltu2q/I/
https://www.astrobin.com/full/5t2j3z/0/

[Ryderscope (Rodney)]

The colour palettes are very subjective Ben when it comes to narrowband imaging and they may, or may not, have some relation to the emission line wavelengths of the underlying data. From my personal perspective, I think the first and third images 'shine' in that the teal/blue/green from the OIII influence is shining through and add a lot to the image. I also think that this is one field that does benefit from the starless presentation. Thanks for sharing.

[Dave882 (David)]

Great result on this mate. I’m actually quite partial to the 2nd one being a bit more natural colours but yes, very subjective.

[Benjamin (Ben)]

Thanks for your thoughts David and Rodney. Much appreciated :-) It is subjective but I guess there are elements that could make it more or less successful as an image: I’m a muso not a photographer so always feel a bit trepidatious with these things.

[Benjamin (Ben)]

Following the formula attached here as an image I get this version of NGC3576. I’ve adjusted the brightness a bit but not the colours. Stars are colour corrected via Spectrgraphic Colour Calibration in PixInsight.
Astrobin: https://www.astrobin.com/full/1ltu2q/J/

[Paul Haese]

That is an interesting colour palette, it all seems to fit quite well without appearing to look fluro like. I like the detail too.

[Benjamin (Ben)]

Originally Posted by Paul Haese

That is an interesting colour palette, it all seems to fit quite well without appearing to look fluro like. I like the detail too.

I thought the “accurate” mapping of the Ha, SII and OIII to their emission line colours helped suggest the difference in hue between NGC3603 and NGC3576 when imaged in LRGB. The spectrographic color corrected stars are a bit of a a bit of a lie however, given only narrow band wavelengths of light were collected (yellow stars come out moslty red when not corrected).