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NGC2237 - Rosette Nebula


Constellation: Monoceros

NGC2237 is popularly known as the Rosette Nebula. it contains the cluster NGC2244 in the centre. It is about 5500 light years from Earth and has a big angular size of approximately 80'x 60'. I have been planning to image this nebula since early 2005, but due to weather and the fact that the nebula isn't very high in the sky, it was not possible until january 2006.


4 & 27 January 2006

Other sizes: 70% size and 100% size

Equipment:
Scope: Takahashi FS60c & 0.6x Mogg reducer
Camera: Artemis 285
Filters: Astronomik Ha (14Nm) & RGB filters
Exposure: Ha=7x600s RGB=(12,15,19)x180s
Guide scope: C8 @ f10
Guide camera: Vesta SC3 bw webcam
Mount: Vixen GPDX
Capture sw: Artemis Capture (to 16bit FITS)
Guiding sw: K3CCDTools3 and MTSca Pro

Processing:
Each of the 4 channels were aligned and stacked in K3CCDTools3 and saved as FITS. The RGB channels were registered against Ha using IRIS 5.1 coregister, scalecolor and trichro commands, and saved to Photoshop PSD using savepsd command.

Ha was used as Luminance and combined with RGB in Photoshop using Luminance Layering (LLRGB). Curves and levels applied for final colour balancing. Clone tool was used for removal of artifacts from passing satellite during green channel captures. Thanks to Tom How for support and processing tips!.

24 January 2006
This is the Ha exposure as used in the image above.

Click the image for larger size.