| Here is a recent processing effort on some data collected last year. The North American Nebula has always been a difficult target as I use an unmodified Canon DSLR which doesn't have the best H alpha sensitivity. In order to make the nebula visible, extreme stretches are generally needed. These stretches usually result in bloated and excessive numbers of stars then tend to obscure the nebula. By splitting the stars and nebula out to separate layers the nebula can be stretched without over doing the stars. Noise reduction can be applied without overly blurring the stars allowing a much more balanced image. The image below is the result of split star processing and a statistical noise filter applied several times throughout the processing. Click on the image to see an earlier version with more conventional processing. Click again to return to the original image. | ||||||||||||||
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