Hi All,
I ventured into the Vela SNR area looking for a specific object that I remembered seeing in a wide field image a while ago. After some internet trawling I came across the object, RCW32. What drew me to it was it's array of aesthetic colours and features which I found striking. From the wide field image, RCW32 looked like it would present a processing challenge given its complex characteristics combining emission and reflection nebulae. It reminds me a lot of M20 seen
here taken with my 12.5" RCOS set up last year. RCW32 sure was fun to work on.
Here's my rendition of
RCW32
Processed in CCDStack, MaximDL and Photoshop. The image started out as a HA+R blend but I found the Ha data too overpowering, even when toned right down. Any form of reflection nebulae was simply washed out. I focused my attention of the base RGB master. It displayed the emission and reflection nebulosity reasonably well. I know I could enhance these with selective colour in PS at a later stage. I still managed to use the Ha data I had collected but not as luminosity, only lighten mode and with a opacity of around 45%. Despite the low opacity it still brought in some pleasing details and depth to the image. Finished off using shadow/highlights with a colour correction adjustment to get saturation to taste. Same as the
CG12 image, I've blown the blue channel again. I think this is going to be a simple fact of imaging with this set up. Stars are bright and with a fast set up, they are easy to hit saturation point. I've lost no important data as a result but I do like to see a clean histogram. Anyway, enough of my rambling.
I hope you like it!
