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NGC 346 is a star cluster surrounded by a bright emission nebula located in the Small Magellanic Cloud, in Tucana. It appears, in this image, together with NGC 371, at its upper right. This narrowband image has been processed, as many of them in this web page, coding Halpha to red and OIII both to green and blue. Some astrophotographers code Halpha to red/magenta, showing a different “natural” distribution of hues or follow the Hubble color palette, by adding SII and coding Halpha to green. I am not willing to start any debate on this, but as astrophotography has also an artistic component, the preferences of the astrophotographer are embedded in his/her final image.
Additional Information
Object
Name(s): NGC 346 and NGC 371
Type: Emission Nebula
RA: 01h 00m 52s
Dec: -72º 07’ 13”
Constellation: Tucana
Size (arcmin): 14×15
Magnitude:
Distance: 210,000
Image
Date: 2015-09-10
Location: iTelescope.net, SSO near Coonabarabran, NSW Australia
Size (arcmin): 35×34
Telescope: Planewave CDK 20” f/6.8
Camera: SBIG STX16803 (4096x4096pix)
Guiding: Astrodon MonsterMOAG off-axis guider
Total exposure: 14 hs (Halpha: 4.5 hs; OIII: 8 hs; RGB: 1.5 hs)
Processing: CCDStack, Photoshop CC 2016 and PixInsight