Sometimes your backup plan works better than your main plan.
I shot a few frames of the Flame Nebula in SHO after another object I was imaging had set. However, I've had lots of trouble processing that other image. It just doesn't want to cooperate. So I decided to see how this data turned out. Without much integration this object produces some pretty spectacular results!
The Flame Nebula is often overlooked as "the object next to the Horsehead." I have certainly been guilty of this. If it wasn't so close to such a recognizable and popular object I think it would be featured more. I decided to make a shot that focused just on it. Even so, it was hard to point my scope away from the Horsehead.
I captured Sii, Ha, and Oiii here (there's barely any Oiii here but it does show up in the Flame) and rendered them using the Forax method, which produces almost a true-color image of this part of the sky. I then improved the contrast and clarity a bit by recycling the Ha channel (with some noise removal and deconvolution) as the luminance.
Comments