Image details: Herbig Haro 164 Star forming region within the “head” of the Soul Nebula. HH164 is placed to the upper right region of the image showing other star farming and stellar nurseries within the Soul Nebula. Image is Narrowband with RGB stars 

Date: September 30^th 2024

Location: Tiny Marsh, Ontario (traveller)

Image Batch:

            R: 20 x 60s ; G: 20 x 60s ; B: 20 x 60s ; Ha: 20 x 300s ; OIII: 20 x 300s ; SII: 20 x 300s

Telescope : Takahashi FSQ85-EDP at 450mm

Mount: ZWO AM3

Camera : ZWO2600mm Pro operated at -10oC and Unity Gain, Offset 0

Filter wheel: ZWO EFW 

Fliters: ZWO L, R, G, B, Ha, OIII, SII

System Control: Stellarmate OS on a Rpi 5 

Guiding Camera :ZWO 120mm

Guiding Camera: OffAxis Guider with ZWO OAG-L

Guiding Software : EKOS internal guider

Calibration Frame Creation:
Master Dark frames were created from 20 dark frames of 60, 120, 180 or 300s in length at a temperature of -10oC. The raw frames were processed through PixInsight as part of a WBPP batch to create master darks. Dues to the timing of the images the same darks were used 

Master Flat Frames were created using an even illuminated field from a EL panel in a custom 3D printed frame controlled using Stellarmate OS (EKOS) using the automated flat routine to maintain ADU at 40,000. DarkFlat frames were also created. Raw flat frame data was processed using the WBPP in PixInsight  to create the master flat frames.

No Bias frames  

Processing: 

• Raw frames were calibrated, integrated and any cropping performed automatically with WBPP in PixInsight. No cosmetic correction or pedestal was applied to the images. 
• The linear Monochrome images were processed through GraXpert removing gradients.
• NarrowBand Data:
  • The linear images were then processed using “linear fit” using Ha as the reference.
  • Each image was then subjected to a slight correction with BlurXterminator , Stellar Adjustment 0.35, None Stellar, Auto PSF, 0.25
  • The noise in each frame was reduced using NoiseXterminator V2, denoise 0.35
  • Mono images were then combined using LRGBCombination script following a basic SHO colour scheme
  • The combined image was then subjected to a second round of Noise removal again using NoiseXterminator V2 with a denoise level of 0.2
  • The combined image was then stretched using GHS, following a standard scheme of stretches in GHS until the stars were starting to saturate.
  • The image then was subjected to star removal using StarXterminator
  • The star removed image was stretched further with GHS and the background controlled using linear stretches 
  • Final cosmetic colour balance / correction was performed using colour saturation and curves
• RGB Data: 
  • RGB data was combined using LRGBCombination script
  • The resulting image was solved using Image Solver
  • Colour Calibration was undertaken using Spectrophotometric Colour Calibration 
  • Resulting image was stretched using GHS until stars matched 75% of the brightness of the Narrow Band stars.
  • StarXtermiinator was used to remove the stars from the image
• The RGB stars were applied to the starless NarrowBand image using the combine images script
• Region of Interest was selected using Dynamic Crop