Hi guys,
I had the opportunity to capture the jellyfish nebula in Gemini during two very clear nights. Since it didn't fit in a single frame a made a mosaic. I used 18 sub-frames of 15 minutes (4:30 hours total) in Hα for each piece.
The bright star at the right is Propus (η-Geminorum) which is on the left foot of Castor.
Hope you like it,
Pablo

Hi Pablo -

I like it very much. Nice wispy details. There's an interesting diffraction pattern in the aura around Propus. Any speculation as to why it looks that way?

That is really Pablo. Due to a death in the family, I haven't been in the observatory in a couple of months but this looks like an object I would like to try. Any color on the way?
mike H.

@Dave: Thanks Dave! I think the way Propus looks has to do with processing. In order to enhance the nebula I always reduce the stars a little by selecting them and applying a minimum filter, then fade the effect somewhere between 30-40%. Later, to enhance the details of the nebula I apply some high-pass filters to copies of the image and overlay them to the original. You have to hide the stars on the high-pass layers to avoid bloating and possible black halos. Finally, after tweaking some more for "correct" (more like personal appealing) brightness and contrast using curves, I apply a little of noise reduction.

So, at the end, everything surrounding a really bright star is affected by all the processing. My guess is it should look pretty much "normal" if no nebula enhancing was done.

Here is the original image (bottom part) with just some curves to lighten it a little bit:

@Mike: Sorry about those news Mike.
I hope to get the OIII and SII channels during the Winter break. (This means 4 more nights!) Now I'm pretty busy with the end of semester.
Hey, with the TeleVue and a bigger chip you might be able to take a wider view. There is very nice nebulosity to the "top-left" (NE) of the jellyfish. This way you might also be able to include μ-Gem a star as bright as Propus.

(From the first line of your reply: Are you implying I'm a jellyfish?? )