Horsehead & Flame 4hrs RGB, 4hrs Ha

[blinky]

Horsehead & Flame nebula - 4hrs in OSC from my QHY8 in 10 min subs, then 4hrs in Ha with an Astronomik 12nM Ha filter, again shot through my OSC QHY8 - I used the split CFA action to extract the red channel, the Ha subs were 20 mins long.
I used the NBRGB combination script to add the Ha to the RGB but found I had a few red halos around the brighter stars, so then took that image into Photoshop and layered the original RGB over the stars to get rid of most of the halos.
Any hints, tips, constructive criticism welcome - I would like to sharpen a little the horshead and possibly try to bring some detail out of the Ha clouds but my PI skills are still somewhat primitive!

 

[pfile]

i think this looks pretty good as is, but you can always try LocalHistogramEqualization thru an L mask to try to get some contrast in the "turbulent" part of the curtain?

also it's backwards but i realize some people do present these DSOs flipped like that.

rob

 

[kwalker]

Nice Horse and Flame.
AWT would sharpen it a little but with all that data I would background enhance first
I seldom correct the orientation of the image unless I get picky
Looks good to me

 

[blinky]

What do you mean by background enhance?

 

[kwalker]

script/utilities/BackgroundEnhance.
just play with the settings a little

 

[blinky]

Ah OK, will try that - here is a version where I did the local histogram and I think it has brought more out of the Ha clouds....

http://blinkysastroblog.files.wordpress.com/2013/12/hargbhorseheadflame-final-image.jpg

 

[kwalker]

once you play around a little with the settings you'll like the script on certain targets.

 

[Jcamek]

Maybe if you horizontally flip the image, if it will look even better and more correct regarding the actual appearance of the object on the skies.