Horsehead HaRGB

[Rigel003 (Graeme)]

I finally managed to combine my Ha horsehead from a couple of weeks ago with some newer RGB data. Unfortunately the RGB was captured on a night with drifting high cloud. There were some weird features in the colour data. Quite a lot of flaring in the blue channel led to some blue/purple blotches - not sure if it was from the clouds or internal reflections but I tried to reduce this in post processing.

This is my first ever Ha RGB combine and not entirely sure of what I was doing. I tried a process outlined on Russel Croman's website. At the end he says "season to taste" and I certainly did that.

See larger image here

[Octane (Humayun)]

Graeme,

That is exquisite. You've even picked up pesky Alnitak's companion.

Congratulations.

H

[Mighty_oz (Marcus)]

That's a very bright red horse u got there, but i have to agree with Octane's comment of Exquisite
U managed to handle those pesky blues very well. Keep ém coming.

[Rigel003 (Graeme)]

Thanks Humayan and Marcus. Seeing it again in the cold light of morning, it does look pretty blood red. I can see a rework coming up.

[gregbradley]

A very nice Horsehead there Graeme. I would tone down the reds a bit thoguh. The flame is more of a yellow than orange and the neb a bit more muted red. Ha rgb combo can easily see the reds go ballistic as Ha is so prevalent and strong. So when processing Ha my philosphy now is to try to tame it to prevent it from overwhelming the rest of the image.

Greg.

[Paul Haese]

Nice Graeme. I can't see the tree though. Man that was a long night. All those subs have worked for you though. Very smooth.

[Rigel003 (Graeme)]

Thanks Greg. Good advice.

Paul, I'd forgotten about the tree. I think that was about 3.30am. I decided to lose those last couple of subs. Get out that chainsaw and I'll be able to image right down to the horizon. At least I got a result though from what was a pretty hazy, cloudy night.

[Rigel003 (Graeme)]

Reprocessed - toned down the reds and reduced saturation a little.

Old version here

New version here

[Ross G]

Hi Graeme,

That's a really good photo of the Horse Head.Sharp and detailed.

I prefer the bright red version.

Thanks.

Ross.

[rogerg (Roger)]

Stunning

[gregbradley]

Ah yes the repro is much nicer. The blues though look like too much cyan. I'd try selective colour tool, blues and work on reducing cyan or upping yellow to get a nicer blue going there in that reflection neb next to the Horsehead.

You got some interesting colour hues in the flame neb. I haven't seen those before. Very aesthetic.

Greg.

[iceman (Mike)]

Nice work Graeme, that's a beautiful image.

[RickC (Richard)]

Hi Graeme,
the repo version is great, it looks very sharp, the tsa-120 is an excelent scope
thanks
Richard

[marco (Marco Lorenzi)]

Hi Graeme, very good color saturation and balance, I really like it. Framing is also perfect and contain all main features of this area, well done

Clear Skies
Marco