NGC 3324 Gabriela Mistral Nebula in SHO

[Startrek]

A rare treat this late summer , 4 mostly clear nights within one week with the tail end of the new moon.
NGC 3324 was nicely placed just clearing my neighbours tree at dusk.
Seeing and transparency were good and a stable upper atmosphere resulted in tight guiding.

Sydney’s Bortle 8 City suburban skies
Humidity 85% and outside night air temp 24 to 26C
Image captured over 2nd , 4th , 6th and 7the February
Skywatcher EQ6-R pro mount
8” f5 Klaus Helmerich Carbon Newt ( self built )
ZWO2600MM cooled to -10C , Gain 100 HCG
TS Optics GPU coma corrector
ZWO EFW 7x2”
Antlia 3nm SHO filters
Orion 60mm guidescope with helical focuser
ZWO EAF focuser
Ha 90 x 2 min dithered subs
Oiii 90 x 2 min dithered subs
Sii 74 x 2 min dithered subs
Darks from Library
Flats for all filters
Flat Darks for all filters
Total integration 8.5 hours
Tracking and Goto EQMOD and Ascom Stellarium
Aquisition APT
PHD2 Multistar Guiding ( 0.40 to 0.45 arc sec total )
Data analysed , reviewed, calibrated, stacked and aligned in ASTAP
Post processed in Startools v1.8 via Compose module and SHO palette in colour module
Stars did not receive any processing even using NB filters , Startools tries to preserve Star colours natural in the background whilst processing both Luminance and Chrominance simultaneously. Great software !!

It was nice to get some clear nights

Quite pleased with the result under my heavy light polluted location.

Astrobin Link below for full resolution….,

https://www.astrobin.com/y94ugo/

Attached native frame version and crop version in 200KB

Thanks for looking
Comments welcome

Martin

[Dave882]

Hi Martin - hasn't it been good to have a couple of clear nights! Well done on another beautiful Gabby. Some great detail on display (wow that closeup!!)- but perhaps a tad more contrast might bring it to the fore?

I looked back in the archives as I seemed to remember you had done ngc3324 before - and indeed it was almost exactly a year ago. Wondering (given our dismal weather) if you ever combine data from previous years. I've done it a few times and sometimes it works out...other times not lol

[gregbradley]

A very good result Martin.

I like the framing.

Greg.

[strongmanmike]

Yeah nice one for sure, I also like the framing :thumbsup:

Mike

[Startrek]

Thanks Dave
Much appreciated
Your comment about contrast has me thinking…..
After looking over it again and again I’ve decided to do a repro as it’s a tad too saturated in colour
I’ve got a few ideas to bring out a bit more detail
I’ll post it tonight
Cheers
Martin

[Startrek]

Thanks Greg,
Generally quite pleased but not quite what I wanted to see. I always end up doing a second and third repro
As I mentioned to Dave , I think the colour saturation is a bit too heavy which is potentially masking some detail, plus I’ve got some other ideas to expose more detail , dust and nebulosity
I’ll post a repro tonight
Martin

[Startrek]

Thanks Mike
Gonna have another go at it , I think a bit too saturated

Cheers
Martone

[Startrek]

After looking over these images today I decided to run through both images again as I think the colour is a bit too rich and could be masking some further subtle detail.Also adjusted the contrast / brightness and used the Entropy module to highlight some areas in the main structures ( edges ).
The colour in the visual spectrum synthetic LRGB image was adjusted to provide a better RGB balance.

Thanks for looking
Comments welcome

Martin

[TrevorW]

Lovely image like the colours, but just a bit of a correction NGC 3324 is the open cluster it is closely associated with the emission nebula IC 2599, also known as Gum 31, also known as Gabriela Mistral Nebula :)

[Startrek]

Thanks Trevor,
Glad you like them
Yeah I’m aware, but I’ve called it NGC 3324 for years so it just habit I suppose.
To add more confusion, have a look on Stellarium, they call it the Keyhole Nebula ( which is adjacent to Eta Carina )
I suppose this is similar situation to the Rosette Nebula , most folk call the Rosette nebula NGC 2244 but in fact it’s an open cluster nestled in nebulosity of the Rosette.

Martin