IC 1848 in Narrowband

Hi all,

Alex's narrowband Rosette spurred me to share one of my works in progress. This is IC 1848 in the Hubble Palette with the colors processed similar to the link I sent Alex.

This was imaged over 3-4 nights last October, 2010.

Telescope: Takahashi FSQ-106N
Mount: Takahashi EM200 Temma-2 mount
Camera: SBIG STL-6303 with 8-position filter wheel.
Filters: Astrodon 6nm (H-alpha and SII), 3nm (OIII)

Exposure information:
H-alpha: 8 x 30 minutes
SII: 12 x 30 minutes
OIII: 11 x 30 minutes

There were more H-alpha and OIII subs, but I had to drop them for bad focus or alignment.

Acquired via CCDAP3 and Maxim DL.

Process with MaximDL, post-processed with Photoshop CS4, GradientXterminator, Noise Ninja and Noel Carboni tools.

I struggle to find that fine line between oversmoothing and "just right" amounts of noise. Of course, at 50% resolution the noise isn't going to be that obvious!

Enjoy,
Eric

Attached Image:

Cool image Eric. This object comes out really nice in the narrowbands.

I know what you mean about the noise reduction. My eye has gotten used to some noise and I am less distracted with noise than I am with oversmoothing. But I don't think there is one approach for all. I think each image and data set requires indicvidual consideration when it comes to noise reduction. So for me at least, it an image by image decision.

Looks fabulous Eric!

Thanks for the comments, Jim and Louie! Thanks to everyone who took a peek, too!

I just updated my website with a larger image:

http://www.skiesbyafrica.com/index.html

Eric