A Moonlit Iris and Pacman

[tomato]

It was wonderfuly clear last night over Shropshire but floodlit by a 98% illuminated moon. The Iris and Pacman Nebulae were best placed away from it so I got 120 x 2  and 106 x 2 minutes respectively on them with the dual Esprit 150/IMX571 OSC rig.

Calibrated and stacked in APP, binned to 35% of original in StarTools, then processed in PI, using Background Neutralisation, EZ Denoise and Soft Stretch, then StarXterminator to allow curve stretching on the nebula and reduction of the stars, followed by further adjustments in Affinity Photo. Full use of the Remove Background tool was needed, thanks to the Moon's contribution. The Pacman image was a rather bland red so I used @Luke Newbould's excellent PI tutorial to create a Hubblesque palette.

They are noisy, but given these are OSC RGB images, they came out better than I expected.

Thanks for looking.

 

Edited January 18, 2022 by tomato

[Stuart1971]

Wow puts my 104 x 2min subs of the Iris, without a full moon, to shame….with same sensor…😮

 

Edited January 18, 2022 by Stuart1971

[gorann]

Good on you Steve to defy the bl--dy moon, and the result is outstanding given the circumstances. I also joined the moon-defiers last night since clouds finaly disappeared for a few hours, but I put on the NBZ filter to be on the safe side. I am about to post the result.

Edited January 19, 2022 by gorann

[tomato]

Thanks for the comments, the individual 2 min subs were not very inspiring, the background on the Risingcam subs was so bright all the dust bunnies were visible!
It would appear that some nebulae are more forgiving under a full moon, even in broadband, rather than galaxies, my preferred targets.

I have my NBZ filter back from @Tomatobro who has been putting it to good use on his dual SY135 rig, so if the forecasted clear skies materialise over the next few nights, I’ll be trying a combination of dual band and broadband OSC capture.

[Luke Newbould]

Awesome job! - A nice dusty Iris and I love that Pacman rendition, unreal when you consider the amount of moon you had to deal with! - Top effort mate, it's easy to feel like not bothering when the moon is lighting up the sky like a floodlight but this certainly shows it's worth the effort!

Clear skies 🙂

[TakMan]

You're a sucker for punishment Steve, but as already said, considering Mr Moon being 100%, that's remarkable.

It's amazing how far we've come - tech and processing to be able to get such an image... unheard of just a few years ago!

Clear and moonless skies to you...

D