Hi all!
I wanted to revisit the Heart Nebula after imaging it last back in 2009 when I was just starting out with astro imaging. Back then I was shooting RGB with a Vixen R200SS. Since then I've been using an Epsilon 180ed but added a TOA-130nfb to the observatory last winter. What joy this refractor is to use and the data I gather with it is super fun to process. The data was drizzled to double the resolution as I found this worked really well with BlurX. After removing the stars I used LinearFit on the SII and OIII starless masters with Ha as reference before combining the channels, doing a histogram stretch and then a round of NarrowbandNormalization with Ha selected for the lightness parameter. I also blended the image with itself using SoftLight as blending mode in the Imageblend script. I'd highly recommend following the link below where you can chose between several resolutions, - the highest being 19044x12500 pixels.
Clear skies!
Ginge
Optics: Takahashi TOA-130NFB w/TOA 645 flattener at 990mm focal length
Camera: ASI62000MM Pro
Mount: 10Micron GM2000HPS
Exposure: R=15x60s, G=15x60s, G=15x60s, Ha=55x600s, OIII=152x600s, SII=158x600s +Darks, Flats
Total integration time: 61hrs 35min
Filters: Chroma
Captured with kStars & Ekos
Processed in Pixinsight
Shot from Bjarkebu Observatory near Ytre Enebakk/Norway on several nights in September, October and November 2024.
I wanted to revisit the Heart Nebula after imaging it last back in 2009 when I was just starting out with astro imaging. Back then I was shooting RGB with a Vixen R200SS. Since then I've been using an Epsilon 180ed but added a TOA-130nfb to the observatory last winter. What joy this refractor is to use and the data I gather with it is super fun to process. The data was drizzled to double the resolution as I found this worked really well with BlurX. After removing the stars I used LinearFit on the SII and OIII starless masters with Ha as reference before combining the channels, doing a histogram stretch and then a round of NarrowbandNormalization with Ha selected for the lightness parameter. I also blended the image with itself using SoftLight as blending mode in the Imageblend script. I'd highly recommend following the link below where you can chose between several resolutions, - the highest being 19044x12500 pixels.
Clear skies!
Ginge
Optics: Takahashi TOA-130NFB w/TOA 645 flattener at 990mm focal length
Camera: ASI62000MM Pro
Mount: 10Micron GM2000HPS
Exposure: R=15x60s, G=15x60s, G=15x60s, Ha=55x600s, OIII=152x600s, SII=158x600s +Darks, Flats
Total integration time: 61hrs 35min
Filters: Chroma
Captured with kStars & Ekos
Processed in Pixinsight
Shot from Bjarkebu Observatory near Ytre Enebakk/Norway on several nights in September, October and November 2024.