Processing walkthrough

During processing I combined these two sets of data (RGB and Hα/OIII) into one single image. Scroll down for a PixInsight processing video that walks through how I did this.

For interest, I made quick edits of just the RGB, and then just the Hα/OIII images. You can see them in the slider image below. RGB is on the left, and Hα/OIII is on the right. Hopefully you can see how each set of data has added detail to the final version. The RGB in particular really highlights the nebulosity around the flaming star itself; not surprising considering that’s the reflection nebula part. RGB is also good for giving accurate star colours. The Hα gives unparalleled detail in the emission nebulosity. Combine the two and you get the final image, which I think is the best of both.

Note that I scarcely detected a hint of Oxygen III. If I were a mono imager instead of OSC, I could have used the more efficient method of simply using a Hα filter for all the narrowband component. But still, I think my OSC approach worked just fine.

As well as introducing the Optolong L-Quad Enhance into my workflow, I made another change: increased subframe length. To date, I’ve always shot 2-minute subframes. For this image, and going forward, I’m switching to 5-minutes. The reason is simple: I gather so much data that 2-minute subframes are filling up my harddrive and taking an age to integrate on my computer. 5-minute subframes mean I have fewer subframes to store, and integration is faster. My mount is tracking well enough to allow me to do this.

There’s a common misconception that I’ll very quickly address, which is that you need long subframes to get detail in your images, particularly from light-polluted areas. This might seem logical, but it’s not actually true. Using modern camera sensors with CMOS chips, as I do, means that your subframe duration doesn’t matter as far as image quality or discernible detail is concerned; it’s all about the total integration time. So, my decision is purely to save harddrive space and spare my PC from melting during integration! For more info about this, check out my article on how to get long integration times.

See below for a full processing walkthrough.