IC1318 - HST palette (final version)

[Paramount]

Hi All
Another clear night that coincided with a night off work so I managed to get 13x20 minutes of SII data to go with the Ha and OIII from previous nights. This is a total of 13 hours exposure time and was taken with a Takahashi FSQ106ED at f5, Starlight Xpress H36 on a Paramount ME auto guided with a Lodestar and OAG using dithering. The last time I did this subject in the HST palette was 2 years ago with my TMB115 f7 with 6x10 minutes per channel. This earlier version can be seen on the "Nebulae" page of the image gallery on my website http://www.imagingtheheavens.co.uk (http://www.imagingtheheavens.co.uk/). Be sure to check out the full high resolution version on http://www.pbase.com/imaging_the_heavens.
I am going to try a widefield of the crescent nebula and its surrounds next, thanks for looking
Best wishes and clear skies
Gordon

http://www.imagingtheheavens.co.uk/userimages/ic1318hst1000.jpg

[multiweb]

Very nice Gordon! Bit noisy in places but I love the color blend you got and you've controlled those wannabe purple stars really well too. Expert processing. Top work. :thumbsup:

[TrevorW]

Agree with Marc the larger version probably too big and shows some noise otherwise nicely done, colours show the detail and no terrible pink stars

[Paramount]

Hi Guys
Thanks for the comments, I think you are mistaking noise for parts of the nebula, if you check the Ha only version I posted earlier you will see that there is a lot of hydrogen in the area both bright and detailed as well as darker, fainter and less detailed cloud, this combined with the OIII and SII is producing the dark greenish background which is often a by product of narrow band processing. Rarely if ever will you get a black sky background. If the image was noisy you would notice a distinct graininess in the image which as far as I can see there isn't any. The only way to have the background dark/black would be to alter the contrast/alter the black point but both of these would have a detrimental effect on the detail elsewhere
Best wishes
Gordon

[David Fitz-Henr]

Great image Gordon! Lovely colour and detail work - looks terrific, well done!

[Hagar]

Great image as usual Gordon. Very nice.