IC 443 (OSC) 23rd Dec - 165mins

[geeklee]

Just before Christmas, I managed ~3 hours of data of IC 443 (threw out some subs due to cloud).  I was planning more data but I made such a mess of my first meridian flip that I started getting paranoid that the flipped images wouldn't be any use... so packed up 😕 Of course, some daylight (warm) reading and testing proved APP (and likely all other software) deal with these flipped images no problem 😄.

Equipment - Sky-Watcher 80ED DS Pro, 0.85x FF/FR, ASI533 MC Pro.
Software - PHD2, Captured in Apt, integrated and lightly processed in APP and Affinity Photo. 

IC 443

55 x 180s (with Flats, Darks, Dark Flats, BPM), -10degC, defaults in camera - Gain 100 (unity) & Offset 70, Bortle 5/6

While showing more Ha structure, it was getting really noisy with some additional curves, so back tracked a bit.  While it's missing loads of structure from some others, I really like the top left of the "jellyfish" and the "folds/curves".  As for Eta Geminorum, it's a lost cause for my processing at present 🙂

[Brian Maurer]

This looks really good for only 3 hours with a OSC! Great job.

[geeklee]

On 28/12/2019 at 07:39, Brian Maurer said:

This looks really good for only 3 hours with a OSC! Great job.

Thanks Brian.  It was stretched and denoised to within an inch of it's life so perhaps isn't a close representation of the data 😕.  Here's two more - one a low level DDP from APP and one working with Levels and Curves and few minor tweaks (thanks again "Making every Photon Count") in GIMP.  While showing less, they've had no serious noise reduction, stars are tight(ish) and there's still some nice structure in the top left.

Astro Pixel Processor (APP) - 10% BG, 5 Sigma, 0% Base.

GIMP levels, curves, false luminance layer

 

Edited December 29, 2019 by geeklee