M78 and The Bogeyman

[Allinthehead]

Hi all, this is M78, part of Barnard's loop and The Bogeyman aka Ldn 1622.

This is my first attempt at a mosaic, and i used Astro Pixel Processor for it. I loaded and calibrated as individual images, then loaded and integrated the two results, registering as a mosaic. All pretty simple really.

Basic stretching using levels and curves, then i did a separate image concentrating on just the stars then blended the two using PS.

Sharpened using PS and blended in just the areas i wanted to sharpen. Minimal noise reduction again in PS, contrast enhancement using dark structure enhance in PI.

What i should have done was to create a false luminance layer from the rgb data to do the sharpening, local contrast etc, but i forgot and i was happy with the result so i wasn't going to start all over. 

So each pane was 4 hours (2 panes) in 5 minute subs. Guided using an off axis guider.

William Optics Star 71 and Zwo 071 pro one shot colour camera cooled to -20 

Captured with Sequence Generator Pro, stacked in Astro Pixel Processor and Processed in APP, PI and PS.

Richard