IC1396 Elephant Trunk Nebula Work In Progress

[TerryMcK]

End of February and start of March 2021 was surprisingly clear in the UK especially around the Jousting Tent Observatory. I am still in progress on this but have done two renditions of the Elephant Trunk, one a bit like what we see a lot Ha mapped to red and the other done in SHO with some none standard colour manipulation.

On both of the images I have tried to emphasize the head and trunk with a little of the surrounding areas.

 

Scope: William Optics ZS103 with x0.8 flattener

Camera: ZWO ASI183MM

Ha 49 x 360 second, gain 111, offset 8

OIII 42 x 360 second, gain 111, offset 8

SII 42 x 360 second, gain 111, offset 8

Total integration time (so far) is 13.3 hours from Bortle 7/8 with almost full moon both nights. However the target was almost 180 degrees away this time so nothing lost of the OIII/SII. I did have an issue with a neighbouring tree creeping in to the guide scope but I dodged a bullet. 

 

I intend to make this more of a wider field as the bit above the head was cut off in integration. So the FOV will be almost 1/2 as tall again. I will have a play around with the PI script WBPP V2.02 script to see if I can adjust it. Or maybe just use APP which I know will do it.

 

Processed with PixInsight, Photoshop CC2021 and the fantastic Topaz Denoise AI.

 

The first one here is HSO 

 

Edited March 2, 2021 by TerryMcK

[TerryMcK]

And the second one is SHO

[Carastro]

Both are nice, but I prefer SHO on this target so the blue shines through, though your SHO image is a little dark and I can't see much sign of blue, perhaps that was down to your processing technique.

 

I have no idea with CMOS cameras BTW, I used CCD.

 

Carole 

[TerryMcK]

Thanks Carole. It is work in progress and I imagine my masking was a bit heavy handed. I prefer the SHO too.

[TerryMcK]

6 minutes ago, Carastro said:

Both are nice, but I prefer SHO on this target so the blue shines through, though your SHO image is a little dark and I can't see much sign of blue, perhaps that was down to your processing technique.

 

I have no idea with CMOS cameras BTW, I used CCD.

Thanks Carole. It is work in progress and I imagine my masking was a bit heavy handed. I prefer the SHO too.

[Bob-c]

Nice pics.

[Dmack1]

Those are nice. If I had to choose i think I prefer the first - the HSO version.

[TerryMcK]

I am still working on this and the latest SHO one I have does show a lot of blue around the nebula. I still have a lot to do but I think I am on the way.

Here is a quick screen grab from PI. I might not end up with the bright orange - haven't decided yet.

[Astroarg]

7 hours ago, TerryMcK said:

I am still working on this and the latest SHO one I have does show a lot of blue around the nebula. I still have a lot to do but I think I am on the way.

Here is a quick screen grab from PI. I might not end up with the bright orange - haven't decided yet.

IMO, I like these colours.. 

[Astrobdlbug]

There is just sooooo much going on in this image - the dust clouds, the  dark 'boks' if thats what they are in lower right, the dirty orange I  like , it gives the trunk a real moody appearance - bit of a nod to Hendrix with the purple perhaps 🙂  ....looking very promising

Bryan

[MartinS]

I like your experimentation with this image, it has enthused me to revisit some older data.

[MarkAR]

On 3/3/2021 at 2:12 PM, TerryMcK said:

I am still working on this and the latest SHO one I have does show a lot of blue around the nebula. I still have a lot to do but I think I am on the way.

Here is a quick screen grab from PI. I might not end up with the bright orange - haven't decided yet.

This version is getting there, I see a slight purple tint in the background and maybe reduce the green just a tad overall.

[Gina]

Like the SHO version.  👍👍