NGC2070 – Tarantula Nebula

NGC2070 – The Tarantula Nebula.

Telescope: William Optics ZenithStar 61 / ZS61

Camera: ZWO ASI1600MM Pro

Mount: Sky-Watcher EQ6-R Pro

Filter: ZWO Red, ZWO Green, ZWO Blue, ZWO Sii 7nm, ZWO Ha 7nm, ZWO Oiii 7nm

Accessories: PrimaLuceLab EAGLE5S, PrimaLuceLab ECCO 2, ZWO EAF

Software: PixInsight Stefan Berg Nighttime Imaging ‘N’ Astronomy (N.I.N.A. / NINA)

Guiding equipment: ZWO 30mm Mini Guider Scope, ZWO ASI120MM-S

Image details: 60 x 30 sec each for RGB stars (30 minute per filter),  50 x 240 sec each for Sii, Ha and Oiii (3 h 20 minutes per filter)

Processing Details (All in Pixinsight)

1.      Stacked with WBPP

Narrowband (each filter)

2.      Remove gradient with GraXpert

3.      Deconvolution with BlurXterminator

4.      Remove stars with StarXterminator

5.      Noise reduction with NoiseXterminator

6.      Linear fit Sii and Oiii to Ha.

Narrowband image processing  

7.      Create HOO

8.      Use Narrowband Normalisation script to bring out Oiii colours.

9.      Stretch HOO using Statistical Stretch

10.  Stretch Sii using Statistical Stretch

11.  Colourise Sii to yellow using NB Colour Mapper script.

12.  Adjust Sii_Colourised with curves to darken background and boost highlights.

13.  Blend HOO image with Sii_Colourised image using Image Blend script.

14.  Adjust curves and saturation using Curves Transformation to get final colour image.

Star Processing

15.  Create RGB image using Channel Combination

16.  Platesolve using image solver.

17.  Set star colours using Spectrographic Colour Calibration

18.  Deconvolution with BlurXterminator

19.  Remove stars with StarXterminator

20.  Stretch stars only image with Star Stretch script

Final image

21.  Combine final colour image with RBG stars image using Image Blend script.

22.  Final noise reduction with NoiseXterminator.