Robins Egg Nebula, NGC 1360

[Geoff45]

I took this one way back in November. It's quite faint and I took a long time over processing, lots of versions. I'm still not really happy with it, but I think the only thing that will improve it is better quality data. The seeing was not good at all--bloody awful actually.

http://www.astrobin.com/280386/0/
Larger version here
http://www.astrobin.com/full/280386/0/

Camera: FLI Proline 16803
Telescope: 12.5" Plane Wave CDK
Mount: AP900
Filters:Astronomik L, R, G, B, Ha, OIII
Exposure: 5.5 hours
FOV: 46' x 41
Processing: PixInsight

This is mostly an LRGB shot. I pushed some Ha fairly strongly into the red channel and added a smidgen of OIII in the green and blue channels using the NBRGBCombination script in PixInsight (Great script!)

[strongmanmike]

Yes, more data would help for sure Geoff but a pleasing result none the less, with lovely colour, nice work :thumbsup: This is a tough one to get a good image of I think, it is so subtle (and beautiful) but really at the mercy of the local seeing :scared: the second Ha jet is particularly challenging to reveal too, needs a lot more Ha I recon and decent seeing.

Mike

[Placidus]

This one is so small and subtle and difficult we've not tried it since moving to the farm - six years. Yours is beautiful.

[gregbradley]

Lovely colour in the nebula and is that a jet coming out the top?

A mask allowing the background only to be desaturated would help with the slight red colour noise.

Greg.

[Geoff45]

Thanks Mike. Yes, I looked to see if I had the second Ha jet, but it just wasn't there.


Thanks Mike and Trish

Thanks Greg. Another way which works quite well is to mask out the highlights and use SCNR (gently) with red selected. I haven't bothered to update the images online, because really the main problem with this image is lack of good data

[Paul Haese]

It looks like a tough target Geoff. One that I will add to the every growing imaging list. Looks like you have done a pretty good job.

[Atmos]

It may be data lacking but it is a really nice shot Geoff, all you can do now is smooth it out :)

[Ryderscope]

'Tis a surprisingly challenging target indeed. Quite deceptive actually. The result here Geoff is great.

[Geoff45]

Thanks all. One of the most consistent things about this object is that although it looks as if it should be easy, everyone remarks on how difficult it is once they try it.
One of the most detailed shots I've seen is Fred's one of two years ago http://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/showthread.php?t=127502&highlight=Ngc1360

[RickS]

Very pretty, Geoff. Shame about the conditions. I haven't tried this object but I can easily believe it's a tricky one!

[cometcatcher]

That's a terrific egg!

[Geoff45]

Thanks Rick. I think one of the problems is expecting to find sharp detail in the images and that's not the case.

Thanks Kevin

[Ross G]

A great capture Geoff!

Love the colour.

Ross.

[Stevec35]

Actually I think it's quite bright as planetaries go but regardless of that I think it's a very good image of this object Geoff with a good view of the jet. Possibly you could smooth the background out a bit but that's only a minor point.