NGC 292 HaOIIIRGB

[Atmos]

With the deluge hitting Victoria at the moment I figured that I should start learning an effective process for adding Ha & OIII data into the RGB data set. Eventually going to be collecting the Ha & OIII data for the SMC. After fiddling with the data for half of the day I think I'm getting closer to something I'll eventually be happy with.

I ended up finding that the best way for me to process all of it was to create two different versions and merge them together. Struggled with merging the stars and nebulosity (mostly for the luminance) that didn't dull down one or the other.

First version without star enhancement (https://www.astrobin.com/full/324375/0/)

The first one was the first rendition I was actually happy with. After some further consideration I decided to process mostly for the stars and then combine the two.

With star enhancement (https://www.astrobin.com/full/324375/B/)

Combining the two together I found added the stars in without loosing most of the nebulosity. I'll have to go and reprocess all of this stuff again and do some actual noise reduction and deconvolution but at the moment I'm happy with the result.

[Placidus]

Hi, Colin,

We much prefer the first version, which shows much more of the detail of the nebulosity. It is excellent.

Best,
MnT

[Atmos]

I am a little torn between the two. I've just been fiddling around with different blending methods in an attempt to not lose the nebulosity in amongst the 25,000 stars while still being able to show just how many stars in the central region there is.

The example above is a simple "Max(A,B) function which is why the fainter regions are swamped by star nebulosity.
I've found that blending the nebulosity at 3x the strength as the stars helps bring the stars through with minimal nebulosity loss but I've still got a few more ideas to try this evening.

[strongmanmike]

Both are good Col, I love seeing lots of tiny stars in LMC/SMC shots but I also like LMC/SMC shots with the nebulae enhanced and less obvious stars, both look good in their own right I recon...heck even combinations look ok...in fact sheesh, I like most types of LMC/SMC shots! :P :thumbsup:

Mike

[xelasnave]

Thank goodness for rain and cloud...more processing time.
Both great and wonderful to see.
I hope one day to do half as good.
Alex

[RickS]

Both are OK by me, Colin :thumbsup: If you want a suggestion, try using a Hue curve to move the cyans to the blue a little.

Cheers,
Rick.