IC2944 is also known as the "Running Chicken Nebula" for reasons which escape most astrophotographers. It kind of does look a bit like a running chook but more so in the wider field images of this area. For this field of view displayed here we have more of the body of the "chook" so no resemblance to a running chicken I'm afraid.

This is actually a "cross over" project as I'm calling it because the RGB_Ha data has been captured with my QSI683 CCD and the OIII and SII data has been captured with my recently commissioned ZWO ASI2600 MM Pro camera, all with my Tak TSA120 OTA. I was part way through the data acquisition project when the new camera arrived so I changed over to the ASI2600 to capture the remaining narrowband data. The assembling of the data worked quite seamlessly in that I simply calibrated, registered and integrated the data from the ASI2600 and then registered the SII and OIII masters against the masters from the QSI683 and all was good.

This area is very popular for astro imagers and I see that most images posted are starless narrowband versions. Just to be different, I was determined to produce an image that contained RGB stars that still managed to display and highlight the nebulosity in the area without detracting too much from the fine dusty features in the nebula. It is an area that is rich in Ha, OIII and SII so it is important to try and capture all the detail and display them in the final image. Adam Block has produced some good tutorials that provide options for de-emphasizing stars in an image so I took advantage of this plus some scripts recently added to Pixinsight called "Screen Stars" and "Star Reduction". These scripts have been produced by Bill Blanshan and Mike Cranfield and are a great addition to the Pixinsight tool box.

For completeness, a starless version has been included as a mouse over so check it out and see which one you prefer.

Clears skies,
Rodney