Crab Nebula M1 in 3nm H-Alpha, OII, and SII 11-22-16
Captured this narrowband image of the Crab Nebula M1 from my driveway in the Red/Orange LP zone of the city where I live. Sky conditions were average at best, and I had to deal with some high clouds later in the evening. The outside lights in my community were recently changed over from low pressure sodium to brighter full spectrum LED types, which has now made imaging a real challenge for this location. Used my Celestron EdgeHD11, with a Celestron 0.7x focal reducer, on an Atlas Pro AZ/EQ-G mount. Effective FL was ~1960mm at f/7. For guiding, I used an Orion TOAG (off access guider) with a Lodestar X2 camera. Capturing camera was an Atik 460ex Mono CCD camera. Used Astrodon 3nm Ha, OIII, and SII narrowband filters, in a Starlight Instruments filter wheel for data collection. Captured 36x5min Ha, 21x5min OIII, and 10x5min SII Lights. No Bias or Flat frames applied. Post processing was done with PixInsight and Photoshop CS6. Used the SHO ("Hubble" Colors) palette, where SII=Red, Ha=Green, and SII-Blue. Along with the final processed image, I've also included the individual Ha, OIII and SII data. Unfortunately, I had some guiding issues due to the ambient light conditions, as indicated by some star elongation. Overall I'm happy with the effort, and continue to be amazed at with narrowband imaging can do.
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