Elephant Trunk Nebula

Elephant Trunk in HaRGB color palette.

The RGB color model is an additive color model in which red, green, and blue light is added together in various ways to reproduce a broad array of colors. The name of the model comes from the initials of the three additive primary colors, red, green, and blue.

The main purpose of the RGB color model is for the sensing, representation, and display of images in electronic systems, such as televisions and computers, though it has also been used in conventional photography. Before the electronic age, the RGB color model already had a solid theory behind it, based in human perception of colors.

Image Data: Elephant's Trunk Nebula and IC1396 

Lens / Scope: William Optics Megrez 102 S.V. with WO Type II 0.8x FF/FR 

Focal Length: 571.2mm 

F/stop: f/5.6 

Exposures: 

Ha: Stack of 12 1200-second exposures (4:00 hours total exposure)

RGB: Stack of 52 420-second exposures (6:00 hours total exposure)

Mount: Sky-Watcher HEQ5 Pro SynScan GOTO (CdC and EQMOD Control) 

Guiding: Sky-Watcher 80 with QHY5 (PHD Control) 

Camera: Canon 500D (Digital Rebel T1i) Baader Mod (EOS Utility Control) 

Mode: RAW 

ISO: Ha – 800 RGB – 400  

White Balance: Ha –  Daylight RGB – Custom

In-Camera Noise Reduction: Off 

Filters: Omega Optical H-alpha 10nm - Hutech IDAS LPS

Dates: July 29 2011, July 30 2011, August 06 2011 

Location: Beja, Portugal 

Calibration: Darks, Flats, Dark Flats, Bias. 

Processing: Calibrated, aligned and stacked in DSS. Post-processing in Photoshop.