The Lagoon nebula in Broadband and Narrowband

The goal of these images is to show the different features of the Lagoon nebula in narrowband and broadband. This was some really clean data from telescope live, and so I was able to push the images pretty hard to show the structures off. The narrowband images are meant to show off the pure emission components, while the broadband image is meant to show off the reflection and absorption zones. Below you can see some comparisons of regions in broadband and narrowband. To separate these structures, on top of simply separating the filters, I also subtracted the emission and broadband components to create purely broadband and purely HOO images.

Broadband + HOO:

Full-quality image here: https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/53080988605_07e9451324_o.png

Broadband:

Full-quality image here: https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/53081077353_e3ab6b0bf2_o.png

SHO:

Full-quality image here: https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/53080990855_2d233f5178_o.png

Comparisons and Interesting Features

IC 1274 in HLRGBO (left) and SHO (right). Note the blue reflection nebulae that show up in the broadband image.

The central lagoon nebula in HLRGBO (left) and SHO (right).

The trifid nebula in broadband (left) and narrowband (right). The extent of the blue reflection nebula is interesting to see.

Interesting OIII filaments in the region

Details:

Telescope: Takahashi FSQ-106ED
Camera: QHY 600M Pro
Filters: Halpha, SII, OIII, L, R, G, B
Location: Heaven's Mirror Observatory, Yass, NSW 2582, Australia
Date of Observations:  5/22/2023, 5/23/2023, 5/25/2023, 5/26/2023, 5/29/2023
SII: 20 x 300s (1h 40min)
Ha: 20 x 300s (1h 40min)
OIII: 20 x 300s (1h 40min)
L: 15 x 300s (1h 15min)
R: 15 x 300s (1h 15min)
G: 15 x 300s (1h 15min)
B: 15 x 300s (1h 15min)
Processing: Pixinsight
Credits: Data: Telescope Live; Processing: William Ostling

Processing:

Creation of Integrated Master Frames:
- Images were cosmetic corrected for hot pixels
- The subframes were weighted, registered, and normalized in WBPP
- The channels were manually integrated and drizzled
Preparation of master frames:
- Stacking artifacts were cropped
- The RGB channels were combined to create an RGB image and then the image was plate solved
- The SHO image was combined to create an SHO image
- Starless DBE was applied to L, RGB, SHO 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 was applied to the images
Natural Palette processing:
- Continuum-subtract SHO files
- Emission-subtract RGB and L files
- Histogram stretch
- LRGB combination
- MMT adustments
- Saturation adjustment
- Addition of broadband components
SHO Processing:
- Continuum-subtract SHO files
- SHO combination
- Histogram stretch
- Curves transformation