The Tarantula Nebula (C103) HSOLRGB

I was inspired to process this image by Trygge Dyrvic's HaLRGB+SHO post. The idea is first to obtain an LRGB image that has been color-calibrated by SPCC. Continuum-subtract the RGB from each of the Halpha, SII, and OIII grayscale images. Then blend each grayscale image, with some specific color assigned, into the LRGB image.

The object is not to recolor the image so much as to combat the contamination of the colors in the nebula itself. The nebula emits light that is completely saturated and it would be nice to convey that effect. The contamination comes from reflected starlight and light in the atmosphere picked up by the broadband filters.

I blended the narrowband images one at a time starting with Halpha using the ImageBlend script from Cosmic Photons. The color I chose to render Halpha is 350° fully saturated, a choice based on my visual observations of the 2016 solar eclipse. I was amazed at the bright neon pink glow of the solar prominences, and it impressed on me that when we see HII we not only see Halpha but Hbeta also (blue-486.3nm) and the result is amazing.

Processed using PixInsight with FBPP, SPCC, BXT, NXT, SXT, MAS, ImageBlend, GHS, and Affinity Photo 2.