NGC1952 Crab Nebula

[Spookyer]

Hi all, first processing effort for this target. LRGB About 11 hrs of data taken and about 7hrs used in this image. I have some Ha as well I may try and blend. On the RC-12 with SBIG STT8300. Cropped. Done over many nights with seeing varying from poor to good.

Any thoughts on improvement welcome.

[Placidus]

A surprisingly difficult target. Lots of nice wispy filaments well captured.

There is a dark bay or sinus in the Crab at about 7 o'clock. Curiously your image shows a cigar-like extension of that dark region out beyond the crab, further toward 7 o'clock. Wondering if that is a processing artefact or dust on the sensor or some such, or whether you think it might be real. Haven't seen it in other images, but even the famous NASA one clips the background so one would never know. An artefact seems the most likely explanation.

[Atmos]

Although I am yet to try this one I know it is a surprisingly difficult subject for us southerners, never gets quite high enough!
You've captured it well though. I do agree with MnT, that cigar like but actually looks like a flats issue.

[strongmanmike]

Really good result Brett, I think Mike might be right about that dark section though?

Mike

[Spookyer]

Hey thanks, I didn't notice that, looks like it happened right at the end when I sharpened it and saved it as a jpeg. I got carried away when I was doing some finishing in photoshop (most processing done in Pixinsight). I have fixed it and updated the image.

cheers
Brett

[strongmanmike]

That fixed it! :thumbsup:

[RickS]

Looks good, Brett. Is there a slight mis-registration between the colours? Just wondering about the big stars with asymmetric cyan rings.

Cheers,
Rick.

[Spookyer]

Yes I had noticed the stars were a bit cyan and had the edge on them. The RGB image doesn't have them visible, it might have happened when I combined them with lum. Will have to check back through my files and try and see where they first appeared.

Brett