NGC 1333 is a reflection nebula located in the western part of the Perseus molecular cloud. The blue nebula is surrounded by a dense dust cloud and is home of a very active star forming region.
The image is the result of 23.5 hours of integration of broadband LRGB exposures shot during the months of November-December 2020.
Full size here
Luminance 395x100s
Red 150x100s
Green 150x100s
Blue 150x100s
Processing details
Pixinsight
LRGB calibration, weighting, alignment, integration (drizzle integration vark 1.5), crop, Integer downsample 2x
Luminance
- EzDenoise,
- HT stretch making sure stars are not pushed too far
- Duplicate + starless version with PS ContentAware fill
- Exponential blend of starless back into L to enhance the intergalactic dust
- Duplicate + hdr to enhance details in the bright star forming region
- Blend hdr version back into L with mask to only select the bright region
- LHE with protection mask
- Slight curves adjustment
RGB
- LinearFit of R and B masters to G master
- Channel combination
- PCC
- LRGB combination with L master
Photoshop
- Enhanced saturation and contrast with luminosity masks
- Non linear noise reduction protecting stars
- various curves, contrast and color adjustments with masks
