Astro Anarchy: IC 1848, the "Soul Nebula", reprocessed

Friday, September 2, 2011

IC 1848, the "Soul Nebula", reprocessed

Since my processing technique gets better and the time of year doesn't give any support, I have reprocessed some older images. There is now star colors added and other processing is tweaked too.

IC 1848, the "Soul Nebula"

Ra 02^h 51^m 36.24^s Dec +60° 26′ 53.9"

Image is in HST-palette, (HST=Hubble Space Telescope)

from the emission of ionized elements, R=Sulfur, G=Hydrogen and B=Oxygen.

Star colors are mixed from the NB channels, Red=H-a, G=O-III and B= 85%O-III + 15%H-a.

This image is taken with a Tokina AT-X 300mm F2.8 camera lens.

Soul Nebula (Sh2-199, LBN667) is an emission nebula in Cassiopeia at distance of about 7500 light years.

This complex is the eastern neighbor of IC1805 (Heart Nebula) and the two are often mentioned together as the "Heart and Soul".

Here is a "scale study" about the apparent scale of the IC1848 in a sky:
http://astroanarchy.blogspot.com/2011/06/ic1848-soul-nebula-apparent-scale-in.html

Natural color composition from the emission of ionized elements, R=80%Hydrogen+20%Sulfur, G=100%Oxygen and B=85%Oxygen+15%Hydrogen to compensate otherwise missing H-beta emission. This composition is very close to a visual spectrum.

Processing work flow:

Image acquisition, MaxiDL v5.07.

Stacked and calibrated in CCDStack.

Deconvolution with a CCDSharp, 20 iteration, added at 50% weight.

Levels, curves and color combine in PS CS3.

Equipments:

Tokina AT-a 300mm f2.8 @ f2.8

Platform and guiding, Meade LX200 GPS 12" @ f5

Camera, QHY9

Guider, Lodestar

Image Scale, 3,79 arcseconds/pixel

Exposures: