Flame Nebula

[dayers]

All,

The last time I processed this data for NGC2024, acquired almost a year ago, I was still floundering around with Photoshop. This time around, I used only PixInsight, except for calibration, which seemed to have to be done in CCDStack. Anyway, I'm pretty proud of the results here and would appreciate an honest critique from anyone willing to spend a few minutes poking around the pixels.

http://orlop.net/astro/NGC2024_LRGB_2.jpg (3298x2448)

In particular, do you think it would be worth the extra time and expense to gather more data? What would a "deeper" image look like? Just more stars?

I also have some Ha data that I didn't use in this plain-vanilla LRGB image, so I'll see what I can do with LHaRGB. (Got to do something these long winter nights!)

Dave

[Lex]

Hi Dave,

your Image is absolutely gorgeous! Really fine details, nice color balances, nicely shaped stars, absolutely well balanced background and what enjoys me is the nice view of this little head that tends to slip in the image center 

Another addition of some Ha would certainly not be bad; you'ld give more depth to your picture especially to the HH neb.

With all my respect and IMHO, this image does not need anything else; but for the astronomers heart testing is always good and welcome; if you know what i mean 

Again, Nice shot dave!!

BTW some details about equipment used please?

[Lex]

hehe and of course some exposure details.... 

[FunTomas]

Dave, why is this image mirror-flipped?

[dayers]

Hi Lex,

Thanks for your kind comments. I will see what combining (if that's the right word) some Ha with the red will do.

As for equipment and exposures (see below) I own no equipment and am dependent on various rental scopes. This data was gathered by remote programming of an observatory at Rodeo, New Mexico. The LightBuckets site there has recently changed ownership, and I am now experimenting with using their 17" Planewave CDK-17 located in  southern France.

Image Details
Telescope: 8? Newtonian Astrograph f/3.6 wide-field
Camera:
Filters: Astrodon LRGB
Location: Rodeo, New Mexico, January 2011
Exposures: Luminance 12 frames x 240 seconds unbinned. RGB (ea) 10 frames x 100 seconds 2×2 (1.6 hrs total)
Post-processing: CCDStack2 and PixInsight
PixInsight Modules used: StarAlignment, ImageIntegration, MultiscaleMedianTransform, DynamicCrop, HistogramTransform, StarMask, HDRMultiscaleMedianTransform, LRGBCombination, BackgroundNeutralization, SCNR, CurvesTransformation
Full Image Resolution: 3250 x 2448 pixels

FunTomas: Why the flipped image? No reason. I have no idea what the "correct" orientation might be.

Dave

[pfile]

FunTomas: Why the flipped image? No reason. I have no idea what the "correct" orientation might be.

Dave

it's because maxim and pixinsight disagree about what corner the 0th byte in the file represents. you can change the pixinsight setting in the fits importer, or just flip the image after it's been loaded.

for reference just google the messier number and take a look at the images... probably 90% of them will have the correct orientation.

[dayers]

Never would have guessed! However, I googled NGC 2024 and quickly found about every orientation and flip. I think I'll leave well enough alone.

Dave

[Ioannis Ioannou]

Dave it is gorgeous. If I wanted to be very picky, I would say :

1) crop 2-3 columns rows at the bottom to get rid of some black pixels

2) apply gently ACDNR with 0.5 at Lightness and 1 at Chrominance and a good, "hard", mask to protect the details. The target should be the background, not the nebula (actually I'm not sure if it is indeed needed)

3) play with histogram to increase contrast (bring shadows a bit at the right, bring midtones a bit at the left). Very carefully. It seems that there are more details hidden in your image

Ha and longer exposures for sure will bring more details

[dayers]

Hi John,

Thank you very much for taking the time to look at my Flame Nebula. I love this forum!

I missed the black pixels at the bottom. I'll banish them.

I used MMT for noise reduction of this image, mostly because it seemed easier to get good results. I do need to learn how to use ACDNR better. Thanks for the pointers.

As for histogram adjustments, I did this mostly on the luminance image. Do you think spending more time on the RGB might be useful?

Right now I am working with adding my Ha information to the image.

Thanks for being picky!

Dave

[Ioannis Ioannou]

Well, actually I think that the image is very nice as it is 
Working at pixel level (400% and more) can be a bad habit 

[dayers]

I can think of worse bad habits, but I take your point!

Dave, who often does not know how to leave well enough alone.

[Howard]

Hi Dave:

I've been admiring your beautiful wide field portrait of the Flame since you posted it, and figured on getting in another appreciation of your work before you return with the Ha folded in!

The amount of detail and colour that you extracted out of a total of just 1.6 hours of exposure is very impressive. And I'm with Lex on the appeal of the framing, with the Horsehead seeming to gallop into the field. The Ha could add to the lift of the HH against the background emission nebula, adding still more depth to an image that is already so richly textured (my first attempt at an image that included an Ha channel was a closeup of the HH, and I was stunned at how much that added to the LRGB).

Best regards,
Howard.

[dayers]

Thanks for your kind comment, Howard.

The Ha version should be coming up soon, I hope.

Dave

[jtalbot]

Dave,

I am going to have to agree with a few of the posters and say this image is fantastic the way it is.  I can see there is alot more dust in the dark areas but your processing is done very well to not aggravate the noise in this area.  This area is also full of Ha so I would go ahead and try add some if you have some good Ha data since as a side benefit you will learn how to add the ha data.  Either way this is a very nice image and one to be proud of.

Jon Talbot

[dayers]

Thanks, Jon

I just finished busting my butt to fold in my Ha data, but I think I wasted my time. My available Ha data was pretty puny, and even with a multiplier of 8 it didn't really add much to what I had before. So I think I'll move on and let Flame alone for a while.

Original image:

http://orlop.net/astro/NGC2024_LRGB_3

With Ha added to Red:

http://orlop.net/astro/NGC2024_LHaRGB_18

Take your choice.

Thanks to all for your help.

Dave