Imaged from Allen, Texas, USA
Bortle 9 (Urban) light pollution zone
I’m not sure what color surprise is but based on the light pollution’s effect on imaging I’d say it’s probably green. Light pollution leaves a heavy green cast on digital images, even through light pollution filters. Having recently installed N.I.N.A. and needing to get familiar with it, I finally made some time to plop everything outside and start figuring out everything I forgot.
Fast forward to this morning (Sunday, Sept 8) I did my customary quick process and was super surprised at how much nebulosity I was able to extract even though I was using a broadband filter on a one-shot color camera. Typically I have only gotten this kind of result with a multi-spectrum narrowband filter that only lets very specific frequencies through that are associated with common excited gasses found in space. As these gases change energy states they emit light at very specific frequencies. Armed with that knowledge we can image objects that are rich in Hydrogen, Oxygen and to some extent Sulphur in areas that are moderately light polluted. I did NOT expect anything from last night other than learning some more about the fundamentals of NINA.