Witch Head Nebula, by Utkarsh Mishra
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Description
Data acquisition and copyright – DSS POSS II, ESO, STScI
Processing – Utkarsh Mishra, FITS Liberator, Photoshop Creative Cloud
FITS images downloaded from DSS POSS II survey and processed.
Workflow
Histogram stretching using levels of red and blue tiff, applied gaussian blur many times, combined both images into RGB document, made synthetic green channel, screen mask invert, HDR toning, camera raw, LAB color adjustments for better colors, color balance, Gradient Exterminator, star reduction, curve balancing.
All done in Photoshop.
Details about the object
IC 2118 (also known as Witch Head Nebula due to its shape) is an extremely faint reflection nebula believed to be an ancient supernova remnant or gas cloud illuminated by nearby supergiant star Rigel in Orion. It lies in the Eridanus constellation, about 900 light-years from Earth. The nature of the dust particles, reflecting blue light better than red, is a factor in giving the Witch Head its blue color. Radio observations show substantial carbon monoxide emission throughout parts of IC 2118, an indicator of the presence of molecular clouds and star formation in the nebula. In fact candidates for pre-main sequence stars and some classic T-Tauri stars have been found deep within the nebula. (Source: Wikipedia)
About the processor
Utkarsh Mishra
Location: India
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