An NGC 1333 and IC 348 2 Panel Mosaic, in RGB with Hα Added

[Mike Lewis]

This started off as just a single frame image of the wonderfully complex NGC 1333 (also known as the Embryo Nebula), in the upper right portion of this final image. But once I saw what was also nearby, I decided to frame this as a 2 panel mosaic that included the IC 348 region as well (which encompasses the red emission nebula region in the left side of the frame) . A fun area of the sky, with multiple types of nebulosity, plus a lot of dark dust.

This is ~15 hours for each panel, for a total of about 30 hours. I took my usual short RGB subframes for the stars, but ended up not using them, as they were looking really just too small. I am finding that this new Redcat 91 telescope produces such critically focxused stars that I need to collect longer subs for stars to make them appear natural. I will continue to experiment with that, but for this image I ended up using the 900 second data for the stars as well, with a little star reduction for the larger stars used in this case.

These 2 areas are connected to the Perseus molecular cloud, and are between 950 to 1,000 light years distant from Earth.

a link to a larger version is here: https://app.astrobin.com/u/mlewis?i=ziio1x

Thanks for looking and for any feedback and/or questions!

Equipment:
Poseidon-M Camera @ -5C and
Gain:125 Offset:25
Astro-Physics Mach2 Mount
Williams Optics Cat 91 Refractor, 448mm @ f/4.9
Antlia Pro Filters (3nm narrowband plus RGB)
Askar FMA180 Guide scope with ASI290MM

Software:
Pixinsight Commercial Version 1.9
Lightroom CC
Photoshop CC
N.I.N.A. Control Software
BlurXTerminator (Russell Croman)
StarXTerminator (Russell Croman)
NoiseXTerminator (Russell Croman)
Astro-Physics APCC and APPM

Light Frames:
Gain 125 / Offset 25
Red: 30 x 900 secs (7 hours 30 mins)
Green: 29 x 900 secs ((7 hours 15 mins)
Blue: 29 x 900 secs ((7 hours 15 mins)
Hα: 33 x 900 secs (8 hours 15 mins)
30 hrs 15 mins total

Dark Frames:
10 x 900 secs (2 hr 30 mins)

 

[JimFox]

That amount of data sure produced a really great image Mike. I like all of that dark nebulosity all around it. Do you still call it dark nebulosity when it's that lighter gray color?

Anyway, lot's to see in this, and the 30 hours were put to good use. That's interesting about the RGB stars, so maybe a new workflow on that in the future?

 

[Mike Lewis]

That amount of data sure produced a really great image Mike. I like all of that dark nebulosity all around it. Do you still call it dark nebulosity when it's that lighter gray color?

Anyway, lot's to see in this, and the 30 hours were put to good use. That's interesting about the RGB stars, so maybe a new workflow on that in the future?

Thanks for the comments. Yes, I am going to experiment with data for stars, including maybe deciding it is not required anymore for RGB targets anyway.

ML