The Glowing Hand of God (CG-4)

This is yet another telescope live image. The H-Alpha data really made this image come to life – it was actually a bit disappointing seeing how little dim dust the RGB image contained when comparing to other images. Regardless, seeing the depths of the hydrogen gas was really stunning. I’ve also been working on a new processing technique where I separate broadband and narrowband gas, which allows to to better control both levels. I think it works quite well!

Can a gas cloud eat a galaxy? It’s not even close. The “claw” of this odd looking “creature” in the featured photo is a gas cloud known as a cometary globule. This globule, however, has ruptured. Cometary globules are typically characterized by dusty heads and elongated tails. These features cause cometary globules to have visual similarities to comets, but in reality they are very much different. Globules are frequently the birthplaces of stars, and many show very young stars in their heads. The reason for the rupture in the head of this object is not yet known. The galaxy to the left of the globule is huge, very far in the distance, and only placed near CG4 by chance superposition.

Image:

Full-quality PNG here: https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/52804552288_cb04a7d11e_o.png

Starless:

Full-quality PNG here: https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/52804551863_0c625bd32c_o.png

Closeups:

Annotated Image:

Full-quality image here: https://theastroenthusiast.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/CG4_annotated.jpg

Details:

Telescope:  ASA 500N
Camera: FLI PL 16803 
Filters: Astrodon LRGB 2GEN, 3nm H-alpha
Location: El Sauce Observatory, Río Hurtado, Coquimbo Region, Chile
Date of Observations: 1/14/2023
Ha: 8 x 600s (1h 20min)
L: 8 x 300s (40min)
R: 6 x 300s (30min)
G: 6 x 300s (30min)
B: 6 x 300s (30min)
Processing: Pixinsight
Credits: Data: Telescope Live; Processing: William Ostling

Processing:

Pre-processing and Stacking
- Images were cosmetic corrected for hot pixels
- The subframes were weighted, registered, normalized, integrated, and drizzled in WBPP
Preparation of all frames:
- Stacking artifacts were cropped
- RGB Channels were combined to create an RGB image
- RGB image was plate solved
- Starless DBE was applied to L, RGB as follows:
      - Starnet 2 was applied to a clone of the target image, creating an image with stars and an image without stars
      - DBE was applied on the starless image to create a background model
      - The background model was subtracted from the stars image
- DeepSNR noise reduction was applied to RGB with a star mask
- the RGB image was photometrically color calibrated using SPCC and clipped H values were fixed with the repaired HSV separation script
Deconvolution and Noise reduction of the luminance:
- a PSF was created using the dynamic PSF process
- Linear starnet was applied to create a starless image and a star mask
- the linear image was duplicated, stretched, clipped, and convoluted to create a mask
- The starless image was deconvoluted using the RVC algorithm
- the stars were added back in
- A low contrast mask was created and applied to the luminance image
- Noise Xterminator was applied with strength 73 and detail 0
Stretching
- A continuum subtract H-alpha image was created using an HRR image and pixelmath
- The luminance and RGB images were H-alpha subtracted to create an image with only broadband strucutures
- The luminance and RGB images were stretched with GHS
Non-linear Adjustments:
- LRGB combination
- Starnet2
- Curves to increase contrast
- GHS
- HDR multiscale trasnform
- Curves to incrrease saturation, contrast, and blue values
- Linear H-alpha addition
- Linear star addition
- Slight noise reduction