CCDSoft, CCDStack,
Photoshop CS6, PixInsight and Noel Carboni's actions.
CCDStack to calibrate,
register, normalize, data reject, combine the sub exposures.
PixInsight for
gradient removal and the
initial non-linear stretching.
PhotoShop for color
combine & final touch-up.
Noiseware Pro, a PhotoShop plug-in.
Comment
North is to the right
The Cone Nebula, located about 2700 light years away, was discovered
by William Herschel on December 26, 1785. Features in the image
include red emission from diffuse interstellar hydrogen and wispy
filaments of dark dust. The dark Cone Nebula region clearly contains
much dust which blocks light from the emission nebula and open
cluster NGC 2264 behind it. One hypothesis holds that the Cone
Nebula is formed by wind particles from an energetic source blowing
past the Bok Globule at the head of the cone.
Source: NASA
APOD.
Both images were created using the Hubble color palette, with SII,
Ha and OIII data mapped to red, green and blue respectively. In the
top image, the color channels were adjusted so the hydrogen (green),
sulfur (red) and oxygen (blue) areas are easily identified. The
bottom image uses the same filter mapping with added RGB data.
