Rosette - Sunday Night Smash and Grab

[bdlbug]

Been a lean few months what with dreadful weather then some clear nights but accompanied by a bright moon, its been challenging to get any imaging done. I also have a local issue with school playing field floodlights Mon-Fri that mean I can't really get any imaging done until they are turned off after 10:30pm - which on a work night really limits my imaging time - so a clear Saturday or Sunday night with little moon interference is a double win

Last Sunday was one of these nights - my original plan was to try and add to my Orion Barnards Loop Mosaic I started early December, but as I found out as I slewed to frame the outer reaches of Barnards loop I also framed the hedgerow trees to my south - Duh!! A quick re-think and as many fellow SGL imagers have been targeting the Rosette I slewed to that and kicked off APT.  I will say that I am a bit frustrated with this image as I spent quite some time using a Bahtinov mask and the mask aid in APT plus the focus aid to get a sharp focus but the resultant image is a bit soft - perhaps the seeing and/or the fairly course resolution of 6.08"/pixel contributed to the overall 'softness'. Perhaps it was a night for a higher F number, but I have used F2 successfully for previous images.

Anyway its a 3.5hr image, using my Samyang 135mm at F2 with ASI1600MC at unity gain mounted on AZEQ6GT - no guiding used

• Baader Filters used
• 40 Ha7nm 90s
• 120 Lum 30s
• 60 Red 30s
• 60 Green 30s
• 60 Blue 30s

I used DSS to stack with Flats for each filter plus Darks and Bias, Used Registar to align and create the RGB merge then into PS. I used the colour preserving Arcsinh stretch as outlined in this thread, thank you @sharkmelley for creating this PS version - first time I used it and I am pleased with the result v's a 'normal curves stretch. I also applied AstroFlat Pro to deal with gradients and a bit of NIK to take some noise out of the image and HLVG to remove green cast. The Ha was added as per Olly's method in the Red channel with a lighten blend - I did also mix about 15% into Lum that helped give a deeper red - given my lack of exposure I had to do something to get a bit of depth to the Rosette reds.. Its a different viewpoint if you like from the excellent high res close up images of the Rosette posted on the forum in recent weeks.

I am considering changing back to my 106 APO to get some higher resolution imaging under my belt but the Samyang 'style' and relative ease of capture with no guiding required is growing on me.

Thanks for looking and as usual any pointers to help improve my image let me know,

Bryan

 

[MarsG76]

The amount of stars in this is amazing....

great rosette, but the 106 will bring it in a little closer.

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

Nice result! I do get the feeling the stars are a touch out of focus