Helix bi-colour attempt

[BruceG]

HI all, this is my 3rd version processing this data. I am fairly new to Pixinsight so the processing is pretty basic. My first versions were with Ha, OIII and SII. The result was milky washed out centre so I subsequently left out the SII data. Now its just over 4 hrs each of Ha and OIII. It is definately cropped too tightly (I did this one after midnight last night and couldn't be bothered to deal with the vignetting in processing). Advice will be greatly appreciated.

GSO RC8, AP CCDT67, ASI1600mm Pro, Zwo 7nm Ha and OIII filters.

Astrobin version here (https://www.astrobin.com/m261bt/C/?nc=user)

[JA]

Well done Bruce :thumbsup:

Best
JA

[BruceG]

Thanks JA, I think my next step will be to collect some RGB subs and reprocess, removing the stars and replacing them later with the RGB ones. I'm sure that will also be a challenge for me, but it's worth a try.

[gregbradley]

That's a very decent shot there.

Greg.

[Atmos]

That's come up really nicely Bruce, I'd be happy with that :thumbsup:

[Placidus]

Very fine. The cometary knots came out well.


Probably a good idea with narrowband to routinely describe what colour mapping you've used. For example: H-alpha: red; OIII: blue.


Lovely work.
Mike and Trish

[BruceG]

Thanks all, yes mapped Ha to Red, OIII to Blue. I think overall my subs turned out to be too long. (600 seconds) - the autostretch was way too aggressive and brought the background up to much in both Ha and OIII. My area is around Bortel 3.5 and the was no or almost no moon. I ended up with manual histogram transformations until I was satisfied. Oh well, this was only second light for this combo. I guess more time out with it will improve things.

[Placidus]

Actually, it's not just good, it's superb. It's amazing how much the height of the bar has increased in say the last 10 years.

[BruceG]

Wow Mike n Trish, that comment has really energised me. I can't wait to get outside and soak up some more photons. Thanks for the encouragement!

[multiweb]

That's really an excellent shot. The resolution and image scale is pretty cool. Top shelf. :thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup:

[rustigsmed]

nice work bruce, its a hard one to process balancing with the O3 detail in the middle and Ha on the outer. excellent stuff.

[BruceG]

Thanks Marc. Much appreciated.

Thanks Russell. I did struggle trying to get the outer areas of the central portion looking good. My previous processing attempts looked washed out and milky in that area.

[Bart]

Nice stuff. It is a hard one for sure.

[BruceG]

Thanks Bart. These comments are encouraging. Hope to get som clear skies soon.