Little bit late to the September Object Of The Month Contest, on this one; definitely check out [the other great pics submitted](https://www.reddit.com/r/astrophotography/comments/pfnxev/ootm_object_of_the_month_september_2021/)! For those curious, the circle near the top middle is Abell 71/Sh2-116, once thought to be a planetary nebula, but now we think it's just a HII region in the foreground of the rest of the structures in the image. Also made a [starless version](https://i.imgur.com/FJpmsQ8.jpg) to better show off the fainter nebulosity. Captured over 5 nights from October 22 to November 1st, 2021 from a Bortle 6 zone.
**Places where I host my other images:**
[Instagram](https://www.instagram.com/leftysastrophotography/) | [Flickr](https://www.flickr.com/people/leftysastrophotography/)
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**[Equipment:](https://i.imgur.com/6T8QNsv.jpg)**
* TPO 6" F/4 Imaging Newtonian
* Orion Sirius EQ-G
* ZWO ASI1600MM-Pro
* Skywatcher Quattro Coma Corrector
* ZWO EFW 8x1.25"/31mm
* Astronomik LRGB+CLS Filters- 31mm
* Astrodon 31mm Ha 5nm, Oiii 3nm, Sii 5nm
* Agena 50mm Deluxe Straight-Through Guide Scope
* ZWO ASI-290mc for guiding
* Moonlite Autofocuser
**Acquisition:** 14 hours 36 minutes (Camera at Unity Gain, -15°C)
* Ha- 54x360"
* Oiii- 47x360"
* Sii- 45x360"
* Darks- 30
* Flats- 30 per filter
**Capture Software:**
* Captured using [N.I.N.A.](https://nighttime-imaging.eu) and PHD2 for guiding and dithering.
**[PixInsight Processing:](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u7FuApFSGuA)**
* BatchPreProcessing
* StarAlignment
* [Blink](https://youtu.be/sJeuWZNWImE?t=40)
* ImageIntegration
* DrizzleIntegration
**Linear:**
* DynamicCrop
* DynamicBackgroundExtraction
* EZ Decon + Denoise (Ha only)
* STF applied via HistogramTransformaion to bring each channel nonlinear
**Combining Channels:**
* PixelMath to make classic SHO to RGB image
* SCNR > Invert > SCNR > Invert to partially remove excess greens and magentas
* Pixelmath to make RGB image using [ForaxX's palette](https://thecoldestnights.com/2020/06/pixinsight-dynamic-narrowband-combinations-with-pixelmath)
> R= (Oiii\^~Oiii)\*Sii + ~(Oiii\^~Oiii)*Ha
> G= ((Oiii\*Ha)\^~(Oiii\*Ha))\*Ha + ~((Oiii\*Ha)\^~(Oiii\*Ha))\*Oiii
> B= Oiii
* Pixelmath to blend classic SHO and ForaxX SHO images 40:60
**Nonlinear:**
* LRGBCombination with Ha as luminance
* Shitloads of CurveTransformations to adjust lightness, contrast, saturation, hues, etc.
* LocalHistogramEqualization
* SCNR Green
* More curves
* EZ Star reduction
* NoiseGenerator to add noise back into reduced stars
* DarkStructureEnhancement
* Extract L channel > LRGBC again for chrominance noise reduction
* Another round of EZ Star reduction + noise generation
* Resample to 60%
* Annotation
lefty7283
