Astrophotography (mostly) and Other Space Stuff…..

Sweetman Astrophotography

Reprocessing the Heart Nebula in False Color

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mike

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Reprocessing the Heart Nebula in False Color

Weather here in New Jersey has not been great for collecting data, so I spent some time reprocessing the Heart Nebula of a few weeks ago. I did a false color reprocessing, in a Hubble Palette, following the workflow laid out here. There are two basic reasons for the false color palette, highlight details or get something more visually pleasing. Sometimes it comes out really well, this time I felt I struggled to get something visually pleasing. In the end, I was ok with what came out, but I still think I prefer the original, below.

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Hello,

I’m Mike

I hope you’ll join me as I explore the amazing universe of astrophotography. This hobby can seem overwhelming at first, but it I find it to be perspective changing and inspiring.

NGC 1499, the California Nebula. This is the first image that I’ve completed with the two sequence dual narrowband filter. I used the DB-Xtract PixInsight plugin to separate the Ha, SII, and OIII channels and then processed with a narrowband workflow. First Quarter Moon from 12/27 Interstellar Comet 3I/Atlas captured November 28, 2025 Getting started on the California Nebula (NGC 1499)…still have to add in the SII data. Had some spare time waiting for other targets to rise, so I returned to Andromeda, about 7 hours total captured over 3 nights in late November. Last full moon of 2025.... 98.6% moon from a few hours ago Messier 45, or the Pleiades, is one of the most recognizable asterisms in the early winter sky. It is a star cluster of nearly 1000 stars located at a relatively close 445 light years from earth. It contains young stars which give the blue color. Thanksgiving moon…from 11/27. 47.1% Illuminated.

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