NGC 2023 and NGC 2024 Flame and Horse head nebulas

[Chefgage]

Star adventurer pro
ASIAIR pro
Skywatcher ED72
OVL field flattener
Canon 200D modified
CLS filter
ZWO ASI120mm mini guide scope

ISO 800
EXP 180s
Lights 53
Darks 0
Flats 20
Bias 40

Moon percentage 77%
Half way through image session moon angular distance 29° 29' 46.8" 

Total exposure time 2 hr 39 mins
 

Struggled to process this one but given that the Moon was at 77% and at a apparent separation of 29° 29' 46.8" half way through the session I suppose this is to be expected.  

[peter shah]

You've done well to pull that out with that bright moon

[Chefgage]

Thanks. I tried quite a few different work flows in GIMP, this was one of the earlier images produced which seemed to work better.

[Tommohawk]

That looks great especially with  the moon so close. BTW you say 0 darks in the write up - I'm guessing thats a typo?

 

[Chefgage]

9 hours ago, Tommohawk said:

That looks great especially with  the moon so close. BTW you say 0 darks in the write up - I'm guessing thats a typo?

 

Actually no. I have stopped using darks as I cannot see any real difference when I use them. I have read a few threads on here of people saying not to bother with darks when using a DSLR as it is not cooled therefore there can be a wide temperature difference over the taking of the light frames so the darks will not be effective or could make it worse. I have tried using darks with my canon 200d and then not using them and I cannot really make out any difference so I have stopped taking them.

[peter shah]

1 hour ago, Chefgage said:

Actually no. I have stopped using darks as I cannot see any real difference when I use them. I have read a few threads on here of people saying not to bother with darks when using a DSLR as it is not cooled therefore there can be a wide temperature difference over the taking of the light frames so the darks will not be effective or could make it worse. I have tried using darks with my canon 200d and then not using them and I cannot really make out any difference so I have stopped taking them.

I stopped using Darks on My old H35 as it doesn't have setpoint cooling....I found it could actually damage the signal in certain circumstances, I rely on a good heavy dither combined with a good reject stacking algorithm and some cosmetic correction in PI. However all of the other cameras with setpoint cooling I absolutely do use them as they do seem to make a big difference.

[Chefgage]

5 minutes ago, peter shah said:

I stopped using Darks on My old H35 as it doesn't have setpoint cooling....I found it could actually damage the signal in certain circumstances, I rely on a good heavy dither combined with a good reject stacking algorithm and some cosmetic correction in PI. However all of the other cameras with setpoint cooling I absolutely do use them as they do seem to make a big difference.

I do have the ability to dither using the asiair pro, just not got round to doing it yet but it's next in the list.