NGC 1499

[Stefan B]

Hi everyone,

the recent bad weather period made it easy to take a break from AP, not only from imaging but also from forums and the like. Visiting astrobin from time to time I saw 100+ notifications of new images of people I follow and I closed it again immediately

In the meantime I wanted to take a picture again but weather isn't cooperating still... anyway, I tried to image NGC 1499 through the clouds:

Due to the conditions it came out extremely soft. And it is a strange creature due to the processing steps. I somehow got the best results with using the duo NB data for luminance AND NBAccent while the broadband data providing color. I had tried that before but never got anything out of it. A pure L,RGB or the regular NBAccent approach always yielded better results. I also tried to emphasize the cloud structure, probably more than the data is able to carry. But these clouds just look epic (not necessarily in my image though ) so tried to carve them out...

Clear skies!

Stefan

EDIT: See https://www.astrobin.com/pu2kuj/ for technical details.

[fmeireso]

Good picture Stefan. Nice stars. The only thing i can think of is the color, of course this personal but find it too brick red, i would paint it more reddish if it is possible. But sometims it just doen not work out...There is nice detail in the nebulae, the framing is narrow...it is a big object.

[Mike in Rancho]

Nice image Stefan, those are indeed epic clouds.

So, thinking about what has been done...

I think the tie-in between narrowband luminance and chrominance has been lost, along with pure relative emissions balancing. But that's been touched on before. Can we consider it an optional way of showing things, without stepping too deep into art.

So your luminance is duo NB. Perfectly fine, and in the case of Cal Neb we know that is 99% Ha, except for the stars. In the normal course, all that supposes that the next step will be color and balancing in false color NB, but instead here that is actual BB. But we can perhaps still consider that a form of false color, just a bit different and not tied to relative Ha-OIII. NB Accent likely then adds some Ha structure boost.

The only things that might be truly unglued are the stars. They will have BB color, which is nice, but applied to an Ha+OIII luminance, which may not be representative of their correct BB luminance.

Does that seem logical? I'm sure, as usual, there's something missing in my rationale.

But unlike Freddy, from an aesthetic standpoint, I actually like the Ha color you achieved. Plenty of deep red that I see, showing off cloud structure, and some brighter almost-pink regions, but not "too pink" I think. I know there are some Cal Nebs that are colored like a tomato, but this one works for me.

[Stefan B]

Thanks, guys!

Freddy, I am actually pretty happy with the color. I went for 'pure red' in NBAccent turning the pinkish color from the broadband data a bit less candyland

Can we consider it an optional way of showing things, without stepping too deep into art.

I like that one, Mike

So your luminance is duo NB. Perfectly fine, and in the case of Cal Neb we know that is 99% Ha, except for the stars. In the normal course, all that supposes that the next step will be color and balancing in false color NB, but instead here that is actual BB. But we can perhaps still consider that a form of false color, just a bit different and not tied to relative Ha-OIII. NB Accent likely then adds some Ha structure boost.

I think that is pretty much what happened. The problem with using broadband chrominance with NB luminance is in case of emission nebulae that you have faint luminance structures for which there is no color information (well, nothing but neutral black space). So you get a greyish coloring for these structures. Additional application of NBAccent helps you get some coloring there, too.

The only things that might be truly unglued are the stars. They will have BB color, which is nice, but applied to an Ha+OIII luminance, which may not be representative of their correct BB luminance.

That's certainly true but since I am usually pretty bold on 'Shrink' (and that's been the case here, too) you can't trust the brightness of the stars anyway.

But unlike Freddy, from an aesthetic standpoint, I actually like the Ha color you achieved. Plenty of deep red that I see, showing off cloud structure, and some brighter almost-pink regions, but not "too pink" I think. I know there are some Cal Nebs that are colored like a tomato, but this one works for me.

Happy to hear you like it! Much appreciated!

Regards
Stefan

[Stefan B]

Forgot to share the link for technical details: https://www.astrobin.com/pu2kuj/

(Now edited in the first post.)