7/6/2011 NGC 7380 in Narrowband

16 July 2011

After quite some time I am happy to post my first narrowband image rendered in the Hubble palette.  It seems that I am having to learn imaging processing all over again, but I think I’m getting the hang of it.  In this image the colors indicate the chemical composition of that region of space.  This particular scheme is known as the “Hubble Palette” as it is the same scheme used to colorize many of the Hubble Space Telescope photos.   Here is what the colors mean:

Red = S II (ionized sulfur)
Green = HA (hydrogen alpha)
Blue = O III (doubly ionized oxygen, having two electrons removed)

And here are the technical details about this image capture:

NGC 7380 – The Wizard Nebula
2 exposures of HA, with 20 minute subs each
2 exposures of O III, with 20 minute subs each
4 exposures of S II, with 20 minute subs each
Imaging scope:  Astro-Tech AT10RC  Ritchey Chrétien
Imaging camera:  QSI 583wsg monochrome
Guide camera:  Starlight Xpress Lodestar
Capture and processing in Maxim DL
Background gradient removal in Fitswork
Final processing in Photoshop

Enjoy!