Narrowband Images
Narrowband images can look impressive and show a lot of detail as monochrome images, particularly those taken with a Hydrogen Alpha (Ha) filter. However, when objects have been images through a combination of narrowband filters e.g. Hydrogen Alpha (Ha), Oxygen III (OIII) and Sulphur II (SII), they can be combined to create colour images. Probably the most popular methods of creating colour images from Ha, OIII and SII images are the Hubble (HST) palette and the Canada France Hawaii Telescope (CFHT) palette where the individual narrowband images are asigned the following colour channels.
Hubble palette -
Ha = Green,
OIII = Blue,
SII = Red
Canada France Hawaii Telescope palette -
Ha = Red,
OIII = Green,
Sii = Blue
For further information on tricolour emission line imaging, I recommend this paper written by Richard Crisp.
Click on any of the images below to enlarge and use your left and right arrow keys to scroll through the images.
NGC 2237 Rosette Nebula - Hubble Palette |
NGC 2237 Rosette Nebula - CFHT Palette |
Sharpless SH2-252 Hubble Palette |
Sharpless SH2-252 CFHT Palette |
Sharpless SH2-234 Hubble Palette |
NGC 6888 Crescent Nebula in Ha |
NGC 6888 Crescent Nebula in Ha |
NGC 7635 Bubble Nebula in Ha |
NGC 7635 Bubble Nebula in Ha |
NGC 281 Pacman Hubble Palette |
NGC 1893 Tadpole Nebula - Hubble |
NGC 1893 Tadpole Nebula - CFHT |
IC 443 Jellyfish Nebula |
NGC 7822 in Ha |
NGC 7000 North American Nebula in Ha |
Sharpless SH2-229 Ha |
| IC1805 The Heart Nebula |
