NGC1788 Fox Face Nebula

[Ryderscope]

NGC1788, also known as the Fox Face Nebula and is located in the constellation of Orion. The nebula is the lighter patch in the upper right quadrant of the image. It is also collocated with the dark nebula Lynds1616.

The image was taken with my Tak TSA 120 with a .7x focal reducer resulting in a field of view of approximately 1.4 degrees.

I find the brownish interstellar dust quite fascinating but I can't find any reference to this in any of my searches. It is a very busy area of the sky and I assume that the dust is associated somehow with the nebulosity in the region.

Details:
Acquisition -
L 28 @ 300 = 2.33
R 24 @ 600 = 4.00
G 27 @ 600 = 4.50
B 24 @ 600 = 4.00
Total integration time = 14.83 hrs

Hardware -
Tak TSA120 + .7x focal reducer
Lodestar x2 guide camera
QSI 683 WS8 CCD camera
Skywatcher EQ8 mount

Software -
Sequence Generator Pro
Pixinsight 1.8

Link to Astrobin image here. (http://astrob.in/full/286107/0/)

Comments and critique welcome.

[Atmos]

I don't see a fox face but it is very nice Rodney! Lovely dusty region that's for sure!

[codemonkey]

Looks good Rodney! Nice colour and an interesting region that I don't recall having seen before. Thanks for sharing :-)

Since you asked for critique, I might suggest that the image could be improved with some medium/large scale noise reduction. There's some mottling going on in the image which is usually a result of using high frequency NR methods such as TGVDenoise. You can follow this up using the noise reduction in MultiscaleMedianTransform as Jon Rista describes in his article which you can find here (https://jonrista.com/the-astrophotographers-guide/pixinsights/effective-noise-reduction-part-2/). This method is very useful for mottling like this and FPN; I use it a lot. Hope that's of some use!

[Ryderscope]

Thanks Colin/Lee.

I will follow up on the tips Lee as I am always on the lookout for improving noise reduction.

[Andy01]

Great stuff Rodney, Always a pleasure to see something new, Well Done! :thumbsup:

[strongmanmike]

Excellent image Rod, some faint dust has been brought out here with nice colouration, a little bit of noise-smoothing blotchiness perhaps but otherwise excellent work, good framing too. The little foxy is very cute :)

Mike

[Ryderscope]

Thanks Andy and Mike, appreciate the feedback.

[RickS]

Looks damn fine to me, Rodney!

[Ryderscope]

Thanks Rick.

[markas]

Fine result, Rodney. Worth the time!

Mark

[topheart]

Excellent!
Thanks,
Tim

[Placidus]

Nicely done! Lovely to see something unusual.

Guessing one has to rotate the image 90 degrees anticlockwise to see the fox face.

Are those other things that look like the galaxy eating cometary globule CG4 in Puppis also cometary globules?

[Ryderscope]

Thank you Mark, Tim and MnT.




Agreed that one needs to flip the image to properly orient the face of the fox. I like this composition though as I can imagine that I see the body of a canine with a dusty tail.

On the issue of cometary globules, thanks for this clue as I was looking for some idea as to where to find more information on the brown dusty regions that are revealed in the image. A quick search has brought up some literature on CGs in the region which might shine some light on the subject.

[Maurice]

That's a beautiful image.
Congratulations.

Cheers
Maurice

[Ryderscope]

Thanks very much Maurice.

[Paul Haese]

I like this Rodney. Something seldom seen, nice colour, composition and detail. :thumbsup: