Cygnus Area Widefield Ha Images - NAN+Pelican & Cygnus Loop

[Gina]

I'm back - into DSO imaging   After a couple of years away due to the weather and other things I have myself a new imaging rig for widefield.  Trying the new ZWO ASI1600MM-Cool CMOS camera in conjunction with Asahi Super Takumar 135mm f2.5 lens and Atik AFW2 filter wheel.  EQ8 mount looking huge in comparison

Friday night into Saturday morning gave me lovely clear sky for several hours and after a few very short trial runs I was able to grab my first decent imaging run for ages.  All subs were 30s exposure with lens at full aperture, no guiding.  Taken with Astrodon 5nm Ha filter.  Software (still in Win7) was CdC plus EQMOD ASCOM for mount control and APT for image capture, followed by DSS and Photoshop for image processing.  I captured 8 subs of the North American and Pelican Nebulae and 53 subs of the Cygnus Loop though DSS only chose 4 and 26 respectively in spite of much fiddling with the settings.

Both stacks were cropped to the DSO area with the Cygnus Loop rotated to fit the screen better.  Then these images were histogram stretched in Ps plus Enhance DSO & Reduce Stars and Space Reduce Noise applied to the Cygnus Loop.  The images still being at least twice the maximum size allowed for posting here, size was reduced to 1200px in the biggest direction.  Saved in PNG format.

[Gina]

Last night was clear for a couple of hours and I was able to collect more of the North American and Pelican Nebulae.  Still Ha only as the filter wheel wasn't working for some reason.  Just Lights - no Darks or Flats.  30s subs with 35 of 71 stacked in DSS (it's still choosing about half the total), rotated 180° to put it the usual way up and histogram stretched in Photoshop.  No other processing.  This is the full size and full resolution image which took me 5m to upload but will allow anyone to see the full size version in all its detail.  Click on image and choose Full Size in the bottom left corner.

[The Head Gardener]

Beautiful Gina.  What a lovely 're-start' for you

 

[Gina]

Thank you Jayne

[PatrickGilliland]

Hi Gina

That is a nice return for sure.  I not a few little star issues top left for example (is that a focus issue?) - starting to pick up some nice detail though now and sure once you have mastered it will all sort itself out and produce some great shots for you.

 

Paddy

[Gina]

Yes, I noticed the star shapes - not sure what's causing it - maybe something not exactly lined up.  I'll be checking it out.

[Gina]

North American and Pelican Nebulae with Astrodon 3nm Ha filter.  109 x 30s subs stacked in DSS and histogram stretched in Ps curves to carefully bring out as much faint nebulosity while keeping the whites from saturating.  Resized to half size - 2328px wide and saved in PNG format.  This resizing is a compromise between full frame which takes at least 5m to upload and 1200px which is the standard display size here.

[Fay]

nice to see you have returned, nice results Gina.

i am on the way back myself

Fay

[Gina]

Thank you Fay

[swag72]

Good to see you back at it Gina after your hiatus ....... A great start to finding your mojo

[Gina]

Thank you Sara

[cloudbuster]

great to see u back gina and with a great image!

cheers

bob

[happy-kat]

Lovely images I do like widefield. Show casing what can be done with a super old camera lens.

[toxic]

welcome back to the dark side Gina and great images

 

[Owmuchonomy]

The 1600 investment is looking good in your hands Gina unlike my credit card balance. So tempting.

[Gina]

Thank you everyone

[ultranova]

That's come out nice Gina, great choice for a wide field shot.

Paul