Iris nebula NGC7023 (reprocess after 5 years)

[Carole]

Separate post for the Iris Nebula (see my other post):
http://forum.orpington-astronomy.org.uk/index.php?topic=11378.msg82615;topicseen#msg82615

As stated in the other thread, I thought I would go back and re-process this 5 years later and see whether 5 more years processing experience will make a difference.

Taken from Les Granges, Provence, France
Luminance 12 x 900secs, Red 4 x 600secs
Green 3 x 600 secs, Blue 6 x 600secs,
Using Olly's equipment, Atik11000, Takahashi FSQ106N and Mount Tak EM200, Baader filters
To be used in a future Edition of Stellarium

New process


Original process in 2013


Carole

[MarkS]

That reprocess is a definite improvement - it shows the dust more clearly.  Star colour has definitely improved.

Performing a background subtraction in that area of sky is a nightmare - very few points in the image that are free of dust.  It becomes a real challenge!

All in all that's a very fine image and you deserve to be quite proud of it.

Mark

P.S. It's better than my own processing of the same region.  I have some ugly green tinges to the dust:
http://www.markshelley.co.uk/Astronomy/2016/iris.html

[Carole]

Thank you very much Mark, I thought I was pleased with the image first time around, so even more please with it now.

Performing a background subtraction in that area of sky is a nightmare

Yes it was rather tricky especially as some of the dust doesn't reveal itself until you stretch a fair bit and this is after you have done the background subtraction.

Carole