The Swan Nebula (NGC6618)
| Scope: | Altair 250mm f/5.3 RC |
| Camera: | ZWO ASI 183MM Pro |
| Mount: | iOptron CEM 120EC |
| Filters: | Baader 35mn Ha |
| Exposure: | 211 x 2min Lights. Dark subtract and flat fielded. |
| Processing: | |
| Other Comments | The final image consists of 121 x 120sec subs giving a total integration time of 4.03 hours. From an imaging perspective, the raw integration of this image before any further processing was ultra smooth with barely any noise in the background. I’ve never had an image look this smooth before, so can only surmise that imaging at around 2.5 airmass over the three nights is the cause of this. With M17 being beyond its peak this year, I won’t be trying to add more data to it, so will call this image done. |
| Date Taken: | 15-08-2023 |
The Crescent Nebula (NGC6888)
| Scope: | Altair 250mm f/5.3 RC |
| Camera: | ZWO ASI 183MM Pro |
| Mount: | iOptron CEM 120EC |
| Filters: | Baader 35mn Ha |
| Exposure: | 160 x 2min Lights. Dark subtract and flat fielded. |
| Processing: | |
| Other Comments | I did loose quite a few subs and ended up integrating a total of 160 x 120 sec subs giving me a total of 5.33 hours. I’ve not done too much on this other than and single restrained run of BlurExteminator and NoiseExterminator in PI and some dodge and burning in Affinity |
| Date Taken: | 21-06-2023 |
The Elephant Trunk Nebula (IC1396)
| Scope: | Altair 250mm f/5.3 RC |
| Camera: | ZWO ASI 1600MM Pro |
| Mount: | iOptron CEM 120EC |
| Filters: | Baader 35mn Ha |
| Exposure: | 411 x 1min Lights. Dark subtract and flat fielded. |
| Processing: | The subs were many more than I thought. I did loose a few to cloud, but in the end I managed to integrate 6.85 hours worth. I was told about the magic of Russ Croman’s BlurExterminator and NoiseExterminator, so I added a 30 day trial for both. The data was very smooth, so all that has been done to this is one round of BlurExterminator followed by star extraction using Starnet 2 so I could then work on the nebulosity in Affinity2 for some localised dodge and burn, background noise reduction and selective high pass sharpening. then back into PI and added the stars back. That’s it.. |
| Other Comments | |
| Date Taken: | 24-06-2020 |
The Cocoon nebula (IC5146)
| Scope: | Takahashi 106 f/5 |
| Camera: | SBIG STL-11000M |
| Mount: | Paramount GT-1100S and Paramount PME |
| Filters: | Ha & RGB |
| Exposure: | 10 x 5min Lights & 7 x 3min of each RGB. Dark subtract and flat fielded. |
| Processing: | All images were combined, calibrated and stacked in Pixinsight 1.08. DBE followed by ABE to remove any background gradient – which was minimal. This was then followed by a bit of Multi Scale Linear Transformation to reduce the noise, followed by a full stretch.Then given a HDR Multiscale Transform to bring out some of the detail nebula, before loading the image into Affinity Pro for a final tweek and a High Pass sharpen. |
| Other Comments | My first deep sky image using the scopes on the iTelescope remote network. The 10 images were taken over two days on the T14 and T20 scopes in New Mexico. Both scopes use the same Takahashi 106mm refactor and SBIG camera. |
| Date Taken: | 14-01-2018 |
B33(Horsehead Nebula) and NGC 2024
| Scope: | TMB 80mm APO Refractor at f/6 |
| Camera: | SBIG 2000 XM |
| Mount: | Losmandy G11 – Gemini Series III GoTo |
| Filters: | Astrodon 6nm h-alpha |
| Exposure: | 11 x 10 min Bin 1×1 0c Dark Subtracted, No Flats |
| Processing: | The combined subs were run through digital development in ImagesPlus with a soft sharpen. The image was transferred to Photoshop where the high signal areas were given some curve adjustment to increase contrast. Finally the midtones were given some gentle smoothing using the Reduce Noise filter while the high signal areas were given some gentle sharpening. |
| Other Comments | These subs were taken way back in March. With only 110 minutes worth, I didn’t think they would be worth processing. I would like to add more data to this image next winter, but I’m quite happy with the result. |
| Date Taken: | 10-03-2006 |
Bright Nebula IC 1318B & Dark Nebula B347
| Scope: | TMB 80mm APO Refractor at f/6 |
| Camera: | SBIG 2000 XM |
| Mount: | Losmandy G11 – Gemini Series III GoTo |
| Filters: | Astrodon 6nm h-alpha |
| Exposure: | 12 x 15 min Bin 1×1 0c Dark Subtracted, No Flats |
| Processing: | A simple Digital Development stretch in ImagesPlus with adjustment for the background levels and midpoint. Very little in the way of curves were applied to the image as a whole, although the high signal areas were pushed a little harder then given a gentle unsharp mask. The dark noisy areas were given some mild smoothing. |
| Other Comments | The digital Development in I.P basically made all the curve adjustment in Photoshop redundant. This has the effect of not pushing the dark, low signal areas so much that noise becomes a problem. Yet the process has eaked out so much more detail that I find it hard to believe both images are based on the same data. |
| Date Taken: | 29-06-2006 |