NGC 281 Hubble Palette?

Finally got all the data last night so experimenting with the hubble palette. 3.5 hours each H alpha, OIII & SII

One thing I've learned is that OIII and SII could use a bigger aperture than 80mm. The OIII images were also slightly out of focus.

Comments please.

NGC 281 Narrow Band

Very nice image there Kieran.

Very nice - I admire your patience - over ten hours capture - were they done in one session - is that possible?

How do you know that the O III channel is slightly out of focus - is that given away by the slight hue arount the stars?

How does one attempt to colour balance - does one attempt to get the average star close to white?

How much extra exposure / integration time is required for narrow-band false/representitve colour work?

Mark

Image obtained over 5 nights due to cloud. H alpha and SII were 1 night each. In the darkest part of the year you could just about fit it all into one night with luck.

OIII is out of focus because it looks out of focus compared to the other master frames.... a stupid lapse on my part.

As to colour balance this is my first effort at this so no idea if its right or not. Just tried to get it close to other images I have seen on the web.

Exposure times are a lot longer for narrow band. Each channel in the image was made from 14 x 15 minute stacked sub frames. OIII and SII hardly show anything at 15 minutes, bigger aperture would help.

Still managed to get some asteroid data submitted during and after each run though..........Hi Carl

Those dark nebulae show up very nicely against the main nebula, thanks for putting it up.

Hi Kieran,

I tried to do NGC 281 two years ago and did not publish it, because I was not happy with the SII and OIII.
You have done a fine job with the colours.

Nice image and a very good effort.