IC 2177 - Seagull Nebula Closeup (SHO)

This is the second image of IC 2177 that I posted recently.  The first image was an HaRGB combination taken with a Canon T3i/600d and 200mm lens whereas this SHO combination was taken with my Astro-Tech 115 Refractor and ZWO ASI1600.  The nebula is nearly 240 light-years across and is 3800 light-years away on the border of Monoceros and Canis Major.  I really like the dense strands in a wispy cloud structure around the head of the Seagull.  The region around the eye socket, a.k.a. NGC 2327, is very interesting as not only it contains a cluster whose brightest star (HD 53367) lights-up the head but also dark nebula that forms a narrow channel from the edge to the socket.

I also find the swirling gas that forms the golden frame of the wings really interesting.  The hardest part was bringing out the blue oxygen-rich regions as they had the most inherent noise.  Unfortunately this nebula does not get that high in the sky and worse yet, most of the light pollution in my area is to the south.  I keep trying different methods to bring in the RGB stars and this was done with four steps.  The first was making a mask PS using Astronomy Tools select bright stars followed by a second pass with more exposure.  The result was pretty good with very tiny stars which some people probably would prefer.  I like slightly larger stars so I did a combination using PixelMath in PI after several iterations - this brought back the star cluster NGC 2343 in the lower left which was less noticeable after the first step.  Finally, I did a combination of with the image after the second pass to smooth in the stars to the nebula for the final image.

Dates: 2-21, 2-23, 3-4, 3-5, 3-7, 3-9, 3-10, 3-12, 3-13, 3-14, 3-15, 3-19, 3-20, 3-21, 3-23

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IC 2177 - Seagull Nebula
Dates: 2-21, 2-23, 3-4, 3-5, 3-7, 3-9, 3-10, 3-12, 3-13, 3-14, 3-15, 3-19, 3-20, 3-21, 3-23
Camera: ZWO ASI1600MM-Pro
Telescope: Astro-Tech AT115EDT 115mm Refractor Telescope
Barlow: None
Focal Length: 805mm
f/7
Focal Reducer: 0.8x AstroTech Field Flatterner/Focal Reducer
Mount: Orion Sirius
Filter Wheel: ZWO EFW 8 x 1.25"
Filter: ZWO Ha, OIII, SII, R, G, B
Focuser: ZWO EAF
Autoguiding: ASI120 Mini attached to an Agena 50mm Guide Scope/ZWO 60mm Guidescope
Exposure: Ha 91 x 240, OIII 82 x 240, SII 89 x 240, R 58 x 60, G 35 x 60, B 37 x 60
Gain: 139
Offset 21
Temp: 0 C
Processing: NINA, PixInsight, Photoshop, Topaz DeNoiseAI.

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https://www.astrobin.com/users/kurtzepp/collections/
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