Here is my rendition of the Eagle Nebula (M16). Total exposure 7 hours LHaRGB (90, 150, 60, 60, 60 minutes) gathered over 3 nights. I had to fight the Sydney weather (as usual) and poor seeing, but thankfully during my Lum and Ha sessions the seeing was reasonably good so the detail in the final result is respectable. Tantalisingly, there was one raw (30 min) Ha frame that was amazingly crisp – much clearer than any other frame. Must have been a bit of 1-2 arcsec seeing – can’t wait for the day when I get a few nights like that!! Unfortunately, the seeing wasn’t so good while gathering the RGB so I had to fiddle around a fair bit to even up the star sizes between the LHa and the RGB (to avoid too many ugly halos).
Small:
http://www.pbase.com/gailmarc/image/99807021/large
Large:
http://www.pbase.com/gailmarc/image/99807021/original
I blended the Ha with both the Lum and red channels (around 50% & 30% respectively). My LHa data was very smooth with a high S/N and only needed very light noise reduction in the darker areas. I applied some wavelet to the LHa. I struggled with the colour balance for a while in PS to cater for the Ha but I
think I've got it right – I’m still a novice with Ha after all.
Hope you like it!
Cheers, Marcus