Cocoon Nebula

[Rodd]

I rarely shoot luminance as my sky is usually too poor.  Last night was an exception.  Seeing was good, evidenced by guiding errors consistently between 0.29" and 0.38".  The FWHM of the stack is 1.98"  I only was able to collect 4.83 hours using 60 sec subs.  Despite the statistics, I think it a questionable start.  What more can I do?  Anyway--I am not sure how I can imporove it--focus was spot on (I checked every hour and made adjustments as needed), and guiding was near the best that I can achieve----and yet.....still the data needs binning, and one could argue that it needs to be binned 3x3 or even 4x4.  But I do not see binning 4x4.  It might be the right thing to do with respect to the data--but I can't see how a tiny, close in shot is desirable.  I might as well switch to a refractor and shoot a wider FOV at the same scale.  I am posting this becuase it will be at least a week until a clear sky, and the seeing will no doubt be poor--and the Moon may be on the rise.  Could be a long time before I can add to the luminance stack.  This one is probabvly stretched too aggresively, but I wanted to show the blue reflection haze surrounding the core.  With more data this will become more prominent and the background will become less so.  

Images with the C11Edge are soon to be I was told my FSQ 106 will return from Japan next month.  I am lookinhg forward to verifying that it has been fixed.    I tghink this image and NGC 7331 will be the final 2.  (If NGC 7331 comes out good, I might conteinue and image Stephan's Quintet.  But that is far from certain.                                               

C11Edge 0.7x reducer, ASI 1600 290 60sec lum subs  Bin 2x2

 

 

 

Edited July 1, 2022 by Rodd

[Rodd]

Reprocessed--a bit more balanced