I. Green channels A. Processing steps Individually clipped to 15-525 adus. Wavelet 5 step filter, no. 2 step high. Linear brightness stretch to 255 8bit levels Saved to fits with suffix clip_wave5bit8 B. Processing steps applied to l_e_20100115_20_1_1_1.fits Green 360s to l_e_20100115_20_1_1_1clipwave5bit8.fits l_e_20100115_23_1_1_1.fits Green 360s to l_e_20100115_23_1_1_1clipwave5bit8.fits l_e_20100115_26_1_1_1.fits to l_e_20100115_26_1_1_1clipwave5bit8.fits C. Combined processed green channels Registered and k-sigma combined - l_e_20100115_20_1_1_1clipwave5bit8.fits l_e_20100115_23_1_1_1clipwave5bit8.fits l_e_20100115_26_1_1_1clipwave5bit8.fits to 201000115_origgreen_bit8.fits D. Overall result Marginal or no improvement Comparing l_e_20100115_20_1_1_1.fits to 201000115_origgreen_bit8.fits II. Red channels A. Processing steps Individually clipped to 115-1100 adus. Wavelet 5 step filter, no. 2 step high. Linear brightness stretch to 255 8bit levels Saved to fits with suffix clip_wave5bit8 B. Processing steps applied to l_e_20100115_21_1_1_1.fits Red 360s to l_e_20100115_21_1_1_1clipwave5bit8.fits l_e_20100115_24_1_1_1.fits Red 360s to l_e_20100115_24_1_1_1clipwave5bit8.fits l_e_20100115_27_1_1_1.fits Red 360s to l_e_20100115_27_1_1_1clipwave5bit8.fits C. Combined processed red channels Registered and k-sigma combined - l_e_20100115_21_1_1_1clipwave5bit8.fits l_e_20100115_24_1_1_1clipwave5bit8.fits l_e_20100115_27_1_1_1clipwave5bit8.fits to 201000115_origred_bit8.fits D. Overall result Discernable improvement in sharpness, gradient detail and background contrast Comparing l_e_20100115_21_1_1_1.fits to 201000115_origred_bit8.fits III. OIII processing A. Processing steps Individually clipped to 15-250 adus. Wavelet 5 step filter, no. 2 step high. Linear brightness stretch to 255 8bit levels Saved to fits with suffix clip_wave5bit8 B. Processing steps applied to l_e_20100115_30_1_1_1.fits OIII 180s to l_e_20100115_30_1_1_1clipwave5bit8.fits l_e_20100115_31_1_1_1.fits OIII 180s to l_e_20100115_31_1_1_1clipwave5bit8.fits C. Combined processed red channels Registered and averaged combined (k-sigma and median require 3 images) - l_e_20100115_30_1_1_1.fits l_e_20100115_31_1_1_1.fits to 20100115_origOIII_bit8.fits D. Overall result Discernable improvement in sharpness. Highlights still overexposed. No improvement in detail gradient. Some artifacts added to image. Comparing l_e_20100115_30_1_1_1.fits to 20100115_origOIII_bit8.fits IV. Ha processing A. Processing Have only one image. This image was clipped to -15 to 500 adus and restretched to an 8 bit image. Processed l_e_20100115_29_1_1_1.fits HA 180s to 20100115_origHa_bit8.fits B. Overall result No discernable improvement. Image stretched to common bit size for further processing. V. Stars only image process A red image with relatively round stars was taken and clipped to remove the background nebula. The image was gamma log stretched to brighten the stars. This star only will be used as a mask to paste white stars over the top of the combined color images. Processed - l_e_20100115_21_1_1_1.fits to 201000115_origstarsonly_bit8.fits VII. Conversion of Fits images to bmp and jpg for processing in GIMP 8-bit processing in GIMP - a Photoshop freeware analogue - is used here. The processed images are exported from FITS to an 8-bit format useable as individual layers in GIMP. GIMP is then used to stack and assign colors and brightnesses to each layer. Processed (lossless) - 201000115_origgreen_bit8.fits -> bmp and jpg of the same prefix 201000115_origred_bit8.fits -> bmp and jpg of the same prefix 20100115_origOIII_bit8.fits -> bmp and jpg of the same prefix 20100115_origHa_bit8.fits -> bmp and jpg of the same prefix 201000115_origstarsonly_bit8.fits -> bmp and jpg of the same prefix-> bmp and jpg of the same prefix VII. Searching for detail with special techniques Difference imaging sometimes can coax out hidden detail. Several combinations on the processed images were tried. The OIII minus Ha image yielded good detail of part of the central ring cloud. This image was set aside for possible use. Processing - 20100115_origOIII_bit8.fits minus 20100115_origHa_bit8.fits with gamma contrast increase to - 20100115_origOIIIHaDiff_bit8.fits This was also exported to bmp and jpg. VI. Blue image processing Initially, I decided not to process the blue channels because they do not increase any information contained in the green channel. On reflecting on final image composition, I preliminarily decided to try for a "cave like" appearance with a bright inner core along the lines of - http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap061026.html or http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap091025.html The foreground/background contrast is also better in the blue channel as opposed to the green channel. So, I decided to do a simple stack of the blue channel for possible future use. A. Processing steps Individually clipped to 15-525 adus. Wavelet 5 step filter, no. 2 step high. Linear brightness stretch to 255 8bit levels Saved to fits with suffix clip_wave5bit8 Processed - l_e_20100115_19_1_1_1.fits Blue 360s to l_e_20100115_19_1_1_1clip_wave5bit8.fits l_e_20100115_22_1_1_1.fits Blue 360s to l_e_20100115_22_1_1_1clip_wave5bit8.fits l_e_20100115_25_1_1_1.fits Blue 360s to l_e_20100115_25_1_1_1clip_wave5bit8.fits C. Combined processed red channels Registered and k-sigma combined - l_e_20100115_19_1_1_1clipwave5bit8.fits l_e_20100115_22_1_1_1clipwave5bit8.fits l_e_20100115_25_1_1_1clipwave5bit8.fits to 201000115_origblue_bit8.fits D. Overall result Barely noticeable improvement in sharpness and detail gradients. 201000115_origblue_bit8.fits compared to l_e_20100115_19_1_1_1.fits Exported - 201000115_origblue_bit8.fits -> bmp and jpg of the same prefix