WR 134 Reprocessed: A Challenging HOO Journey
It's always rewarding to revisit and reprocess data, especially when tackling a target that's been on the bucket list for a while. WR 134, a notoriously bright Wolf-Rayet star, presented quite the challenge, particularly with my limitations: a Bortle 7/8 sky and an OSC camera. This is my first attempt at a true HOO processing workflow with dualband OSC data.
The Struggle is Real: Capturing the Emission
My initial processing attempts were... less than ideal. The Hydrogen Alpha emission was completely blown out, leaving very little visible OIII except for the brightest parts of the bow shock. The goal here was to really focus on that OIII emission, but even with careful adjustments, I found the brightest areas of Ha to be over-saturated. It's a delicate balance when you're pushing the limits of your equipment and processing techniques.
The Equipment That Made It Happen
Here's a look at the gear that went into capturing this challenging target:
- Telescope: Askar 80PHQ with a 0.76 reducer
- Mount: Skywatcher EQ6R Pro
- Camera: ZWO 533MC Pro
- Autoguiding: ZWO EAF & OAG
- Filter: Optolong L-ultimate dualband filter
Data Acquisition and Processing Details
For this capture, I collected:
- 288 x 300s lights at -10°C
- 15 flats and dark flats
- 10 darks
The data was stacked and processed in Pixinsight. The workflow involved splitting color channels, applying DBE (Dynamic Background Extraction), and background neutralization on the RGB channels. The blue channel was stretched, then combined with the green channel. This was then recombined into a HOO palette using Pixelmath. Curves and histogram adjustments were made using color masks. Finally, Starx, Noisex, and Blurx were applied to refine the image.
The Result: A Work in Progress
Here is the reprocessed image of WR 134:
This project was a fantastic learning experience. While I'm pleased with the outcome, there's always room for improvement. It's a tough target, and the journey of refining the processing is just as rewarding as the final image itself. I'm eager to hear your thoughts and see how others tackle this beautiful but challenging nebula!
