North America and Soul Nebula

I’m writing this halfway through the night of January 11th 2022. Weather forecast looked good for the first half of the night so planned around 4 hours on The North America nebula (NGC 7000). It worked out that it was high but descending and would be below my local horizon by around 10 pm. As it happened it was still looking clear, although cold and musty at the end of the session but checking the weather ageing there was no forecast of rain. So quickly looked for another object and the Soul nebula looked very promising and not something I’ve gone for before. Quickly framed the target without changing the rotation (lesson learned from previous imaging session) so I’ll need able to get common flats for both objects and set up an advanced sequence in N.I.N.A . Both nebula using the L-enhance filter, ISO 800 and 5m subs.

The rig is up and running, I’m expecting I’ll get a short run due to high humidity, expecting some fog or high clouds later, we’ll see what tomorrow brings.

Results

A better night than was forecast:

1. NGC7000 – North America Nebula – 36 5m Subs = 3h Integration

2. Darks – 12 5m (used same Darks for both images)

3. Flats – 30 1s (used for both images)

North America Nebula

Basic Levels and Curves stretch applied to this image shown below.

First Stretch and Curve

An overnight run of StarNet+ to remove the stars. I then upped the Levels and a slight curve stretch of the starless image with a final Colour boost of just the nebulosity using colour range selection. I followed this article by the excellent Trevor Jones. This was followed by adding the stars by Selecting them once agains using the PS colour Range but this time grabbing the highlight regions. Copying these as a new layer on the starless image I then brought the opacity of that down. A rotation of the final image, because it North America! Here is my final image.

Final North America Nebula – NGC7000

I’ve had the opportunity due to good weather here in the UK i in my region of the uk to grab a number of objects. Not all rosey as my A First Mosaic Attempt will show and as the nights have gone on the moonlight has got more fierce, I think at this point there was a solid half moon. That said I’m happy with this image, it shows some post processing skills that I have been learning on I think quite a forgiving subject.

Soul Nebula

2nd half of the night of the 11th Jan 2022, N.I.N.A.’s advanced sequencer user to turn to a new target. IC1848 the Solution Nebula, maybe it’s me by the Soul seems to get overshadowed by the Heart Nebula. In fact I have a second stab at a mosaic with both Heart and Soul included. On this night however, the Soul was my focus:-

1. IC1848 – Soul Nebula – 49 5m Subs = 4h 5m Integration

2. Darks – 12 5m (used same Darks for both images)

3. Flats – 30 1s (used for both images)

My Stretched and Curves only image shown below.

IC1805 – Soul, Stretched with Photo Shop Levels and Curves Only