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TheOldMancunian t1_islhvkx wrote

This is amazing. You should enter this for next year Astro photo of the year. It’s seriously good

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azzkicker7283 OP t1_isl6lyo wrote

Apparently it's called the crescent nebula because that's what it looks like through a visual telescope. I think it looks more like a scrotum ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

This is my third time shooting the Crescent Nebula! I had first shot it back in 2017 when I still used a DSLR for astrophotography. I still use the same scope, but eventually upgraded to a monochrome astro cam, and this was my first target using Hydrogen alpha + Oxygen-iii narrowband filters in 2019. This year I decided to shoot it again, although I combined this years data with the data from 2019 since my setup then was identical to how it is now. I did have to heavily crop in on this image due to differing camera rotations, but I ended up with a higher signal to noise ratio overall by combining the data. I also made a starless version of this pic which better shows off the faint nebulosity, including the Soap Bubble Nebula in the bottom left.

Captured over 5 nights in May 2019 (Bortle 7) and 4 nights in May 2022 (Bortle 6)

Places where I host my other images:

Instagram | Flickr

Equipment:

  • TPO 6" F/4 Imaging Newtonian

  • Orion Sirius EQ-G

  • ZWO ASI1600MM-Pro

  • Skywatcher Quattro Coma Corrector

  • ZWO EFW 8x1.25"/31mm

  • Astronomik LRGB+CLS Filters- 31mm

  • Astrodon 31mm Ha 5nm, Oiii 3nm, Sii 5nm

  • Agena 50mm Deluxe Straight-Through Guide Scope

  • ZWO ASI-120mc for guiding

  • Moonlite Autofocuser

Acquisition: 26 hours 5 minutes (Camera at Unity Gain, -15°C)

  • Ha - 61x360" + 88x300"

  • Oiii - 54x360" + 87x300"

  • Darks- 30

  • Flats- 30 per filter

Capture Software:

  • Captured using N.I.N.A. and PHD2 for guiding and dithering.

PixInsight Processing:

  • BatchPreProcessing

  • SubframeSelector

  • StarAlignment

  • Blink

  • ImageIntegration

  • DrizzleIntegration (2x, Var β=1.5)

  • DynamicCrop

  • DynamicBackgroundExtraction

  • EZ Decon

  • NoiseXTerminator

  • STF applied via HT to bring each image nonlinear

Combining Channels:

> really like how the colors turned out on this, especially the slight gold/yellow in the nebula compared to the red in the background

> R= Ha

> G= ((Oiii*Ha)^~(Oiii*Ha))*Ha + ~((Oiii*Ha)^~(Oiii*Ha))*Oiii

> B= Oiii

Nonlinear:

  • LRGBCombination with extracted L as luminance, used for chrominance noise reduction

  • Shitloads of CurveTransformations to adjust lightness, saturation, contrast, hues, etc. with various masks

  • NoiseXTerminator

  • More Curves

  • EZ star reduction

  • NoiseGenerator to add noise into reduced star areas

  • Even more curves

  • ColorSaturation to better bring out the Oiii regions

  • More NoiseX

  • Resample to 80%

  • Annotation

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TheCircusisfalling t1_iso1pxu wrote

Absolutely stunning picture.. who seriously this should be called "The Space Brain".

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EnlightenedTom t1_iso7i4x wrote

The universe is truly a fascinating place. Makes me incredibly sad about being born in the early stage of space exploration.

3

Gizmooo111 t1_isl9b8c wrote

Wow this looks amazing. Great work

I shoot it last week but.... Not comparable to yours. I was about to post it but, nope this would be humiliating for me. :D

i have very much to learn to get those pictures

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viomoo t1_isldidw wrote

Try not to compare your shots to others! Only try to improve yourself!

The shot is nice, but if you can image this nebula you are ahead of 99.9% of the people who will never see it for themselves!

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Alternative_Donut105 t1_ist7gyn wrote

What makes the colours?? Is it different gases or are they added to the picture by man

1

azzkicker7283 OP t1_istirxh wrote

the red is hydrogen gas, and the blue is oxygen. This image is false color, but the HOO palette I used is fairly close to true color, since the hydrogen-alpha emission is in the red part of the spectrum, and oxygen-iii is teal

2

Alternative_Donut105 t1_istt1e9 wrote

Wow wasn’t expecting a NASA level response 😂😂😂😂 I love learning about space 👍🏻 thank you

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Alternative_Donut105 t1_isttaug wrote

If there is that much hydrogen and oxygen in space what do scientists think is stopping it catching fire?

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azzkicker7283 OP t1_istvps5 wrote

because even though there's some ionized gas floating around it's still pretty much a vacuum

1

Fredwharezdabread t1_it0nf2s wrote

Looks like a giant floating brain in space. Cool photo

1