NGC6357 Lobster Nebula - Requesting permission to land

[Emuhead]

Target: Lobster Nebula
Located about ~5,500 light years away from Earth, the Lobster Nebula NGC 6357 is a diffuse nebula containing many proto-stars shielded by dark discs of gas, and small young stars wrapped in expanding "cocoons" of gas.*
This nebula was also given the name War and Peace Nebula by the Midcourse Space Experiment scientists because of its resemblance to a dove and a skull in infrared, although all I see is a cosmic koala at the helm of a spaceship.




Acquisition:
2 nights: 8th & 13th September from Bortle 6 skies in Victoria, Australia.
Integration : 5.5 hrs narrowband integration from the Bortle 6 backyard.
36x6min Ha
8x6min Oiii
11x6min Sii
5x30s RGB for RGB stars



Setup:
Mount: SkyWatcher EQ6R Pro
Imaging Telescope: Skywatcher Esprit 100ED 550mm f/5.5
Reducer: Starizona Apex-L 0.65x
Resultant focal length ~ 360mm f/3.6
Imaging Camera: ASI1600MM Pro (Gain: 139, offset: 50, bin: 1x1, cooled to -10c)
Filters: Astrodon 3nm 31mm unmounted Ha, Oiii, Sii, R, G, B
Filter wheel: ZWO 8x31mm
Guidescope: SVBONY 60mm f4 240mm
Guidecam: ASI290MM Mini
Software: ASIAir Pro

Astrobin link here (https://www.astrobin.com/wm42mx/).

[gregbradley]

Gee I like that. Superbly sharp and detailed. So little exposure overall for a cracking result. Nice.

Greg.

[Emuhead]

Thanks Greg, like everything I likely could add more data to it in the future, good thing these targets don't change much from our tiny perspective. The 5.5hrs @ f/3.6 was nice but processing this target was a beast, probably a sign more data needed. :D

[Retrograde]

Very good Andrew.

[Emuhead]

Thanks Pete. Its got a few faults, always happy to take constructive criticism to improve. More data of course is one.

[Placidus]

It is! It really is a koala at the helm !

[xa-coupe]

Spectacular.

[Emuhead]

Thanks Jeff, Mike & Trish!

I wasnt completely happy with it, so have reprocessed it from scratch, this time using the new NormaliseScaleGradient tool in Pixinsight, no DBE (except on the Oiii), no Topaz Denoise AI, but some EZDenoise in Pixisight and it turned out much better I think.

[LKD]

Very Good, one of the best I have seen. I have been wrestling with some data of this object myself. But my effort pales compared to yours.