60 replies to this topic

[ChiTownXring]

Alnitak: The Image Killer Strikes Again. 

 

Capture date: Feb 3,11,12 - 2024

Location: Round Lake Beach, IL
Bortle class: 6

Lights (Gain 10, -10°C, Bin 1×1):
H: 67 x 120s (2h 25m)
Oiii: 100 x 120s (3h 20m)
Sii: 85 x 120s (2h 50m)
Integration: 8h 25m
Darks: 32
Flats: 65 x 2s
Flat Darks: 65 x 1.3s

Scope: Celestron RASA 8"
Camera: ZWO ASI1600MM Pro
Guide scope: WO UniGuide 50
Guide camera: ZWO ASI120MM Mini
Filter(s): Astronomik Ha MaxFR 12nm, Astronomik Oiii MaxFR 12nm, Astronomik Sii MaxFR 12nm
Mount: Sky-Watcher EQ6-R Pro
 

Control: ZWO ASIAIR Plus

Processing in PI:

Edited by ChiTownXring, 29 February 2024 - 12:33 AM.

[Borodog]

Well, 2 "clear" nights in February means this is it. Only 20 lights the first night with a full Moon, another 55 tonight, when the transparency was brutal, so Alnitak is out of control with the glow. Oh well.

 

 

AT70ED + SV193 0.8X R/FF

ZWO Duo Band filter

ASI533MC-Pro

SV165 30mm f/4 guide scope + SV305C guide camera

Vixen Great Polaris + EQStar

 

Captured in SharpCap, guiding by PHD2.

 

About 70 lights each for OIII and Ha from the two nights. The Ha and OIII stacks used different numbers. Lights were 90s. Flats, darks, bias and dark flats (I calibrated the flats differently on the two nights because reasons). Split to Ha and OIII, calibrated, registered, stacked, recombined, PCC, and preliminary stretch in Siril. Final stretch in GIMP, denoised in NXT in Affinity Photo, vibrance in Astra Image. Crop and jpeg in paint.net.

Edited by Borodog, 29 February 2024 - 01:06 PM.

[stefsaber]

Work got extremely busy, so I never really got back to processing this again. Here is my first quick initial process with three nights worth of data.

 

AT90CFT with 0.8x reducer 

533mc pro, Gain 100, -10C

iOptron 40 

 

230x120s

quick process in Siril

 

[UP4014Fan]

My attempt while climbing a vertical learning curve (separate post shortly).

2/25/24

 

3'30" Integration, 210 60-second subs

Celestron NexStar 8SE with StarSense Autoguider and .63 reducer/corrector

Capture and telescope control via N.I.N.A.

Canon 200D (a/k/a SL2) 

ISO 1600

PixInsight with RCNoiseXterminator and RCBlurXterminator.

Imaged at Broemmelsiek Park Astronomy Area, St. Charles County, MO

 

Although nothing to compare with some of the great images here, I'm happy that what is essentially my third attempt with a larger telescope came out at all.  I feel like a kid who just pulled his first print from a dusty negative out of the fixer bath.  

 

I'm still trying to understand why it's shifted towards the blue-green end of the spectrum.  I somewhat suspect that it's because I used PI's default of the Sony sensors while using SPCC, as they don't list the Canon 200D sensor and I can't determine the equivalent.  However, it could be anywhere in the chain, from light pollution to the dummy at the keyboard.

 

 

Attached Thumbnails

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[Mike in Rancho]

Leaping lizards!  Even with an extra day, I still ran out of time, so better just land this now and hope things don't tip over.  No more capture apart from my two nights in January, but I practiced with it a lot.

 

Luckily, because I use CMOS and I piled on a whole bunch of the luminance filter, total integration isn't important. 

 

Haven't yet renewed my astrobin for uploading there, will get to that eventually.

 

Scope:  Orion 6" F/4 Newtonian Astrograph
FF/FR/CC:  Sharpstar 0.95x MPCC
Cameras:  ZWO ASI2600MM-Pro
Filters:  Optolong LRGB and 7nm Ha, ZWO 7x2" EFW
Mount: SW HEQ5 Pro, belted, Synscan, Wifi
Guide scope: SVB 50mm
Guide cam: ZWO ASI178MC
Acquisition:  NINA, PHD2
Pre-processing:  Pixinsight WBPP
Post-processing:  Startools 1.9 beta

 

01-05-24 and 01-29-24

L:  397 x 20s = 2h 12.3m, 50 darks, 30 flats, 50 bias, gain 0, offset 30, 0C
R:  44 x 60s = 44m, 50 darks, 30 flats, 50 bias, gain 0, offset 30, 0C
G:  45 x 60s = 45m, 50 darks, 30 flats, 50 bias, gain 0, offset 30, 0C
B:  45 x 60s = 45m, 50 darks, 30 flats, 50 bias, gain 0, offset 30, 0C
Ha: 19 x 300s = 1h 35m, 50 darks, 30 flats, 50 bias, gain 0, offset 30, 0C

 

Total Integration: 6h 1m 20s

 

Composition:  ST L+Synth L LRGB, with Ha Narrowband Accenting

 

Edit:  Specially-appearing photobomb by the long arm of Alnilam's diffraction spike. 

 

Edited by Mike in Rancho, 29 February 2024 - 01:13 PM.

[Jkaiser3000]

I just managed to capture 5 hours in Ha, all in 3 months of failed attempts with full moons, Sahara dust clouds and work all conspiring agains me.

 

 

Scope: AT72EDII with 0.8X reducer

Camera: Risingcam IMX 571 mono. 

Gain: 100 in HCG and low noise mode

Filter: Antlia Edge 4.5nm Ha

Integration: 5 hours of 120s lights, with darks, flats and bias

Bortle 7-8 skies

 

Stacked in DSS, processed in Siril with BGE, GHS stretching, starnet star removal and then to Photoshop for some curves and noise reduction.

[Alrakis]

Not a bad first try on the Horsehead.

 

Scope:  Vixen R200SS (200mm f/4 newtonian)
FR/CC:  Starizona Nexus 0.75x FR/CC
Camera:  Canon T7i (modded)
Filter:  Optolong L-Enhance
Mount: AP 1100GTO
Guide scope: Celestron 50mm finder/guider
Guide cam: Lacerta MGEN3
Acquisition:  On-Camera through MGEN3 with dithering
Processing in SIRIL (with an Astroclean finish with Astrosharp)

 

ISO 800, 2 min subs x 109 (3hr 38min) on February 5th, 6th, and 7th

 

Ran through the Siril OSC script, used Siril's background extraction, photometric color, remove green noise, Asinh stretch, Histogram stretch, color saturation. Followed by Astroclean deconvolution by Astrosharp.

 

Full scale picture can be found here:

 

https://www.flickr.c...77720314486581/

 

 

Chris

 

[dswtan]

Posting an update to my draft in the progress thread, sticking with Ha only. 

 

Ha as luminance on my 1hr each of 30sec RGB was still a bust. Couldn't make something that I liked. Happy enough with this Ha only. Great to see some RGB successes here, congrats all!

 

Capture:

Astro-Tech AT130 EDT (5" refractor) on iOptron CEM70 (first light!) with ASI294MM at unity gain, 0C.

4hrs total Ha, 65x 240 sec.

 

Processing:

WBPP
GraXPert
BXT correct only
BXT light sharpening
NXT light noise reduction
EZ Soft Stretch for the stars
SXT for the nebula
STF Histogram Stretch - GHS experiments didn't improve on this
Further NXT
Recombine stars
Final contrast adjustments in Lighroom
Some halo healing in Lightroom

 

Full resolution: https://astrob.in/gx6271/0/

 

[tlindema]

Forgot to submit mine. It's an LRGB composite, with Ha serving as the luminance.

 

For nebulosity:

19x180s R

19x180s G

19x180s B

34x300s Ha

 

For the stars:

38x30s R

38x30s G

36x30s B

 

Explore Scientific ED127 CF-FCD100 w/ 0.7x reducer (650mm @ f/5.2)

Antlia V-Pro RGB, and 3nm H-alpha filters

QHY 268M monochrome camera

 

Edited by tlindema, 01 March 2024 - 01:59 PM.

[nikm]

So sorry for the delay in getting this out. 

The winner for this months challenge is Ginnungagap42  post #30!

[nikm]

New target challenge is up! 

Sorry again for the delay in getting this up. Hope everyone has fun!