My first SHO Image

[Rich Klein]

I've had the Minicam 8 for some months but since it's been galaxy season with few nebulae, I haven't gotten around to an SHO image.  Now that Cygnus is rising at sunset, I decided to try the Pelican Nebula in SHO.

Equipment:

Astrotech ET-130EDT

EQ6R-Pro

QHY Minicam8 with XiaMe 7nm S, H, O filters, -20C

7h36m total integration over 2 nights

I followed a Pixinsight flow by Lukomatico, and used SHO stars. Obviously I've got a lot to learn but think it came out OK for such a short integration.  Comments and suggestions welcome; for example I'd like to make the oxygen-rich area below the yellow curtain wall come out more blue, rather than the sort of teal that's in this image.

- Rich

[Rich Klein]

It looks better if you "open image in new tab". 

[Francesco Meschia]

Hi Rich,

That’s a very nice first SHO! These 7nm filters seem to do very well.

There are many recipes for a classic Hubble-type SHO palette. I’m not familiar with the Lukomatico workflow, unfortunately. I happen to like the process described by Bob Franke at http://bf-astro.com/hubbleP.htm. It can be done in Photoshop with Selective Color as Bob describes, but since I prefer to use PixInsight where possible I translated it into PixelMath expressions. Selective color gives you a lot of fine control over the final palette. 

Another popular palette is the one called “dynamic color combination” and often referred to as “Foraxx’s palette”, described at https://thecoldestnights.com/2020/06/pixinsight-dynamic-narrowband-combinations-with-pixelmath/.

In any case, since color in narrowband images is always false color, you can pick any palette that highlights your “vision” for the target. I started my narrowband journey with Foraxx’s palette, probably because it felt more “familiar” with colors are not that distant from a broadband image, then gradually shifted towards the classic Hubble palette – it’s aesthetically farther from “natural colors” but it highlights different structures with stronger contrast.

Congratulations again,

Francesco

<Pelican_SHO-DeNoiseAI-severe-noise_gimp95.jpg>

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<Pelican_SHO-DeNoiseAI-severe-noise_gimp95.jpg>

[Stuart Heggie]

Rich, that is definitely a super image! I agree with everything Francesco said. I use the Foraxx palette often when I have just Ha and OIII. I also use the HaRGB_Combine process for just RGB and Ha. The NBRGBCombine script is also good but older. And of course there's Photoshop if you're old like I am. LOL!

Stuart Heggie

https://www.stuartheggie.com/f783431253

To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/sjaa-astroimaging/CC927F34-5E36-48FF-A2AA-A051DCE3E2E0%40gmail.com.

[Rich Klein]

Thanks, Francesco and Stuart!   I've got a lot to learn and will be checking out those references!

- Rich

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[Kal Krishnan]

Looks amazing! But I’m confused by the fact that I don’t see the familiar Pelican shape. 

Kal. 

[Rich Klein]

Thanks Kal!  Maybe a different orientation?  But honestly, I've never seen a Pelican here.

- Rich  

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[Francesco Meschia]

Hi Rich – in your picture you're looking at the “neck” of the pelican, and the bird is turned face down.

Can you see the pelican in this one?

On Jul 22, 2025, at 2:35 PM, Rich Klein <rich....@gmail.com> wrote:

Thanks Kal!  Maybe a different orientation?  But honestly, I've never seen a Pelican here.

- Rich  

On Tue, Jul 22, 2025 at 7:17 AM Kal Krishnan <kris...@gmail.com> wrote:

Looks amazing! But I’m confused by the fact that I don’t see the familiar Pelican shape. 

Kal. 

On Sat, Jul 19, 2025 at 11:14 AM Rich Klein <rich....@gmail.com> wrote:

I've had the Minicam 8 for some months but since it's been galaxy season with few nebulae, I haven't gotten around to an SHO image.  Now that Cygnus is rising at sunset, I decided to try the Pelican Nebula in SHO.

Equipment:

Astrotech ET-130EDT

EQ6R-Pro

QHY Minicam8 with XiaMe 7nm S, H, O filters, -20C

7h36m total integration over 2 nights

I followed a Pixinsight flow by Lukomatico, and used SHO stars. Obviously I've got a lot to learn but think it came out OK for such a short integration.  Comments and suggestions welcome; for example I'd like to make the oxygen-rich area below the yellow curtain wall come out more blue, rather than the sort of teal that's in this image.

- Rich

<Pelican_SHO-DeNoiseAI-severe-noise_gimp95.jpg>

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[Stuart Heggie]

Rich, if it makes you feel better, for years I complained that I couldn't see a penguin AT ALL till my kids pointed out that I was ranting about something called the PELICAN nebula. LOL!!

Stuart Heggie

https://www.stuartheggie.com/f783431253

To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/sjaa-astroimaging/7738F282-EE75-4C05-868D-C4F91F6BE1B8%40gmail.com.