Cygnus Wall WIP

[wimvb]

Despite some clouds yesterday night, I managed to get a few hours staring at the Cygnus Wall.

This is very much a WIP (am shooting more subs right now, less cloud)

So far, 17 of 31 frames stacked (only about 6 - 7 rejected due to poor tracking, the rest due to low contrast = clouds)

17 x 480 sec subs (unguided) + calibration frames @ ISO 800 (total time on target: 2 h 16 min)

scope: SW 150P on AZ-EQ6 GT

camera: Pentax K20D (not astro modified)

software: PixInsight (stacking, cropping, colour calibration, noise reduction, stretching and slight sharpening).

I may restack these with the low contrast frames to see if I can get the noise down. At which time I will also make an effort to reduce the stars and sharpen the nebula.

Comments welcome.

 

[geordie85]

Looking good so far. 

Glad you've got clear skies. I'm busy trying to image through patchy cloud at the moment. Taking my chances when I can 

[wimvb]

"Lucky imaging"

We've also had a lot of cloud during the nights lately. Daytime is sunny, but the air cools in the evening, creating cloud cover. I've set up my gear on several occasions, only to take it back in again after polar alignment. Guess I'm getting good at that. Last night I just left everything outside and selected the images that came out ok. 17 out of 31.

Clear nights also means less noise in my camera. We've had night frost already.

[geordie85]

I've had my mount set up since Saturday night only because I keep a close eye on several weather forecasts. If I know it's not going to rain then I don't mind leaving the heaviest part of my imaging rig set up. Saves time both in setting up and polar aligning.

My cloud seems to have shifted now so my camera is snapping away again. Glad I live in the UK where the winter nights are cold and long. Just a shame there's not more clear nights to take advantage 

[toxic]

very nice indeed Wim

[PatrickGilliland]

Super start Wim - same whether issues here all ready to go and cloud rolls in - looks like current image will be parked until next month now - back to narrowband soon....

Paddy

[wimvb]

Take 2:

Toned down the colour in this image. It still needs a lot of work; there are some ugly halos and colour mottle in the dark areas, that need fixing. But for a camera that isn't supposed to pick up Ha, it could have been worse.

This image is from a fresh set of frames, 13 out of 27 frames used (some lost to poor seeing conditions, some due to tracking. I definitely need to invest in a guiding setup.)

13 x 480 sec subs + calibration frames @ ISO 800 (total time on target: 1 hr 44 minutes)

scope: SW 150PDS on AZ-EQ6 GT, unguided

camera: Pentax K20D (not astro modified)

software: PixInsight (stacking, cropping, colour calibration, deconvolution, noise reduction, LRGB combination with synthetic Luminance).