Delights in the SMC - NGC346

[pmrid]

Here's a region that deserves more attention. NGC346, 358/9, 371 - delightful fine structures and plenty of colour.
I spent tonight playing with collimation rather than serious imaging - but did a couple of 10min subs in Ha and O3 of NGC346 just to see how it was going.
This is just 10mins each of Ha+O3+O3 - enough to bring me back the next time the sky clears.
But I'm curious about what looks like an alignment issue in Photoshop - there is a fractional misalignmnet behween the channels and I'm wondering what the best way to manage that might be. Any ideas?
Peter

[marco]

Nice subject Peter, definitely a longer exposure will benefit it!

Which software did you use to align the Ha and OIII channels? However you can fix it now splitting the channels and than re-registering them with registar or another program. It may happen time to time that that the rigistering algorithm is messing up a bit..

Clear Skies
Marco

[gregbradley]

I have found aligning layers in PS to be a rather poor technique. If there is any rotation you are only left with the Transform function which in PS2 is crude at best and almost impossible to use super accurately. If the images just need to move a couple of pixels PS does the job.

I use CCDStack and the CCDIs plug in which gives super accurate registration and mismatches are a thing of the past.

Greg.

[Paul Haese]

Yes I recommend CCDstack for the alignment too.

The registration issue aside, this looks like quite nice data. I look forward to seeing the image finalised.

[multiweb]

Love that image scale! You've got that rig singing now. As other said, don't align in PS. It's not designed for that purpose. Use a proper stacking program. Looking forward to more. :thumbsup:

[atalas]

What a great object! nice.

[Ross G]

A nice photo Peter.

A new object for me. I like the faint details.


Thanks.

Ross.

[pmrid]

Thanks guys. I managed to get some sky last night and ran 6x10minutes each of Ha, O3 and S2. The processing sucks, I know, as does the Hubble palette, but the wispy extensions are certainly emerging.
These were done at F11 on the 14" EdgeHD with an ATIK11002M Binned X2.
Peter

[Brundah1]

Nice work Peter, you are tapping into these subtle structures really well.

BTW you have had some super nights to do this of late and today some idiots have lit fires up wind of us! Did you see the sky on sunset today?

Cheers mate,
DG