Narrowband Deep Sky Objects - What to Expect With Each Filter?
Updated: Jul 20, 2023
On this page, you will find a list of narrowband objects we have captured over the years with our monochrome camera. Each object will have screenshots of what the data for each filter used looked like. This way, you can quickly know what to expect when imaging these objects, and decide what filter to skip or spend the most time on.
A link to our full blog post containing our final image processed from these shots, much more information, and tips on how to capture it will also be displayed for each object.
We would like to thank Georg Woeber for this great idea he had during our fourth Galactic Hangout live stream. Galactic Hangouts occur quarterly and all Patreons/Galactic Course members are invited!
Expand the list below to quickly see if your target is on this page:
Messier Objects
Messier 1 - The Crab Nebula
Messier 8 - The Lagoon Nebula
Messier 16 - The Eagle Nebula
Messier 17 - The Omega Nebula
Messier 20 - The Trifid Nebula
Messier 27 - The Dumbbell Nebula
Messier 42 - The Orion Nebula
Messier 43 - De Mairan's Nebula
Messier 76 - The Little Dumbbell Nebula
Messier 97 - The Owl Nebula
NGC Objects
IC Objects
Sharpless Objects
Other Objects
Important Notes:
Some pictures may be difficult to see. You should be able to expand the image but they will look blurry (each image is heavily compressed or else this page would take years to load). Sometimes, more information about the filters used is available on the full blog post for each picture. The goal of this post is to quickly see, at a glance, the difference in signal between different filters, not to zoom in on any tiny detail :)
This list will take years to complete, so it is normal that several objects are still missing! Also, as of today, we can't image deep sky objects in the southern hemisphere, so if you know a friend who owns an observatory in the south, ask them to let us use it once in a while to populate this list 😎😃.
This list is mostly made up of emission nebulae with a few exceptions. We chose objects that are often captured with narrowband filters. We did not include broadband targets because we don't see much of a point.
The order of the images shown is always H - S - O. If there are only two pictures displayed, that means we did a bi-color combination using H and O filters unless stated otherwise.
Every guide on this website is free! If you find these useful, the best way to thank us is through Patreon. Plus, you also get some cool rewards 😎
Messier Objects
Messier 1 - The Crab Nebula
H - S - O
Messier 8 - The Lagoon Nebula
H - S - O
Messier 16 - The Eagle Nebula
H - S - O
Messier 17 - The Omega Nebula
[Still Working on it! Check back soon!]
Messier 20 - The Trifid Nebula
H - S - O
Messier 27 - The Dumbbell Nebula
H - S - O
Messier 42 - The Orion Nebula
H - S - O
Messier 43 - De Mairan's Nebula
H - S - O
Messier 76 - The Little Dumbbell Nebula
H - O
[Still Working on it! Check back soon!]
Messier 97 - The Owl Nebula
H - S - O
NGC Objects
NGC 246 - The Skull Nebula
[Still Working on it! Check back soon!]
NGC 281 - The Pacman Nebula
H - S - O
NGC 1499 - The California Nebula
[Still Working on it! Check back soon!]
NGC 1977 - The Running Man Nebula
H - S - O
NGC 2024 - The Flame Nebula
H - S - O
NGC 2237 - The Rosette Nebula
H - S - O
NGC 2264 - The Cone Nebula
H - S - O
NGC 2359 - Thor's Helmet Nebula
H - O
NGC 3576 - The Statue of Liberty Nebula
H - S - O
NGC 6543 - The Cat's Eye Nebula
[Still Working on it! Check back soon!]
NGC 6188
H - S - O
NGC 6820
H - S - O
NGC 6888 - The Crescent Nebula
H - O
NGC 6960 - The Western Veil Nebula
H - O
NGC 6974 - Pickering's Triangle Nebula
H - O
NGC 6992 - The Eastern Veil Nebula
H - O
NGC 6960 | 6974 | 6979 | 6992 | 6995 | IC 1340 - The Cygnus Loop / Veil Nebula Complex
H - O
NGC 7000 - The North America Nebula
H - S - O
NGC 7293 - The Helix Nebula
H - O
NGC 7380 - The Wizard Nebula
H - S - O
NGC 7635 - The Bubble Nebula
H - S - O
IC Objects
IC 405 - The Flaming Star Nebula
H - S - O
IC 410 - The Tadpoles Nebula
H - S - O
IC 434 - The Horsehead Nebula
H - S - O
IC 443 - The Jellyfish Nebula
H - S - O
IC 1318 - The Sadr Region
H - S - O
IC 1396 - The Elephant's Trunk Nebula
H - S - O
IC 1795 - The Fish Head Nebula
H - S - O
IC 1805 - The Heart Nebula
H - S - O
IC 1848 - The Soul Nebula
H - S - O
IC 2177 - The Seagull Nebula
H - S - O
IC 2944 - The Running Chicken Nebula
H - S - O
IC 5067/5070 - The Pelican Nebula
H - S - O
Sharpless Objects
Sh2-101 - The Tulip Nebula
H - S - O
Sh2-129 - The Flying Bat Nebula
[Still Working on it! Check back soon!]
Sh2-155 - The Cave Nebula
H - S - O
Sh2-157 - The Lobster Claw Nebula
H - S - O
Sh2-188 - The Shrimp Nebula
H - S - O
Sh2-224 - The Rice Hat Nebula
H - O
Sh2-240 - The Spaghetti Nebula
[Still Working on it! Check back soon!]
Other Objects
Ju 1 - The Soap Bubble Nebula
H - O
Ou 4 - The Giant Squid Nebula
[Still Working on it! Check back soon!]
VSR - The Vela Supernova Remnant
H - S - O
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Clear Skies,
Antoine & Dalia
Galactic Hunter
