Reflection Nebula - Aaarrgghh! Hard to process

[pvelez (Pete)]

Here is my image of IC 4601. Its a reflection nebula and I find them so hard to process.

One of the issues is the abundant due. As you'd expect, extinction results in a preponderance of red. I found that stars that are positioned behind the dust clouds are more prominent in red - which results in red haloes around the larger stars. I've tried to shrink them with the MT tool in PI but not very successfully.

Running the Dark Structure Enhance script also generates dark haloes around the brighter stars in the nebula.

Lastly, the nebula at the bottom of the image has an aqua tinge, which surprised me a little.

I will play with this some more but thought I'd post it anyway.

It comprises 3 hours each of RGB binned x2 and 4 hours of Lum unbinned. All subs are 300 seconds. Taken from SSO near Coona with PW CDK 12.5 and STX16803.

Feel free to comment or bag this one - I'm not precious with this image

Pete

[RickS (Rick)]

It doesn't look too bad, Pete. The colour is always going to need some tweaking if you've got a lot of dust (mine always needs tweaking regardless!) I've had better luck matching star sizes in different channels with decon. MT will do it too but it can be fiddly. Typically it will dim the stars as well as shrink them unless you go to some trouble to avoid it.

Cheers,
Rick.

[SimmoW (SIMON)]

No, I like it, mysterious.

[Shiraz (Ray)]

agree with Simon - it's a very attractive and interesting image.

[Ross G]

Hi Pete,

A great looking photo of a beautiful, faint object.

I was in Coona last new moon and photographed it with a 4" refractor and an OSC ccd. Nowhere near enough exposure and too widefield.

I love the colours and detail in your photograph.

Ross.

[tilbrook@rbe.ne (Justin Tilbrook)]

That's good Pete!

Like the colour, beautiful region.
Tried this one a few years ago, found it hard to process even with OSC.
http://i1172.photobucket.com/albums/...1cropbestA.jpg
Must try it again.

Cheers,

Justin.

[Elio]

Hard object, it's a beautiful image, I would be happy with a similar result

[pvelez (Pete)]

Originally Posted by RickS

It doesn't look too bad, Pete. The colour is always going to need some tweaking if you've got a lot of dust (mine always needs tweaking regardless!) I've had better luck matching star sizes in different channels with decon. MT will do it too but it can be fiddly. Typically it will dim the stars as well as shrink them unless you go to some trouble to avoid it.

Cheers,
Rick.

Thanks Rick

I will give decon a go - MT is a challenge as you say.

Originally Posted by SimmoW

No, I like it, mysterious.

Thanks

Originally Posted by Shiraz

agree with Simon - it's a very attractive and interesting image.

Cheers Ray

Originally Posted by Ross G

Hi Pete,

A great looking photo of a beautiful, faint object.

I was in Coona last new moon and photographed it with a 4" refractor and an OSC ccd. Nowhere near enough exposure and too widefield.

I love the colours and detail in your photograph.

Ross.

Thanks Ross - the colours are what drew me to it - but its certainly harder than it looks to capture them well.

Originally Posted by tilbrook@rbe.ne

That's good Pete!

Like the colour, beautiful region.
Tried this one a few years ago, found it hard to process even with OSC.
http://i1172.photobucket.com/albums/...1cropbestA.jpg
Must try it again.

Cheers,

Justin.

I agree - it is a beautiful region Justin

Originally Posted by Elio

Hard object, it's a beautiful image, I would be happy with a similar result

Thanks for that

Pete