Instrument

Takahashi FSQ-106ED @ f/5.0 (530 mm F.L.)  Captured at 3.5 arcsec/pixel.  Shown resampled to 18.2 (upper) and 16.8 (lower) arcsec/pixel.

Mount

Paramount ME

Camera

SBIG STL-11000 w/ internal filter wheel, AstroDon Filters

Acquisition Data

9/4/2008 to 10/1/2008 Chino Valley... with CCDAutoPilot3

Exposure

SII   720 min.  (24 x 30 min. bin 1x1)

Hα    300 min.  (20 x 15 min. bin 1x1)
OIII  720 min.  (24 x 30 min. bin 1x1)

SII,Ha & OIII are mapped to RGB respectively

Click here for a natural color image.
Click here for an Hα B&W image

Software

CCDSoft, CCDStack, Photoshop CS w/ the Fits Liberator plugin and Noel Carboni's actions.

CCDStack to calibrate, register, normalize, data reject & combine.

PhotoShop for non-linear stretching and the color combine.

Comment

North is to the right.

Both of these images were created using the Hubble color palette. The upper image was processed in keeping with the spirit of the palette. The hydrogen (green), sulfur (red) and oxygen (blue) areas can easy be identified. The lower image was severely processed to produce "wild and crazy" colors but still reveals a similar structure to the nebula.