NGC 7000 - North America Nebula - A Year of Progress

[WolfieGlos]

Back in my introductory post https://stargazerslounge.com/topic/402404-hello-from-gloucestershire/ I showed a few images of progress I've made over the space of a year, and one of those was my first successful astro image, of the North America Nebula.

Below is what I achieved with a stock Canon 77D + EF 200mm f/2.8L :

1 year on, I figured I would re-shoot this with everything I have learned, new equipment that has been added, etc, and see what I could get. Recently I've also been looking at APT, dithering and removing dark frames from my workflow, and below is the first image I've used this for.

Since I'm also now imaging with an Evostar 72ED, I have twice the focal length so decided I would have to image each part separately. I partly shot this during the UK freeze in December (nothing compared to America at the moment, somewhat ironically!), during which I gathered 05:28 hours of frames on NGC-7000 and since then 05:18 hours on IC 5070.

Details:

• Camera - Canon EOS 800Da (Astro Modified) + Skywatcher Evostar 72ED + Stellamira Flattener
• Tracker - Sky Watcher Star Adventurer 2i
• Guiding - ZWO ASI120mm Mini + ZWO 30mm F/4
• Captures - AstroPhotographyTool
• ISO - 800, Shutter - 120 seconds
• 50 bias, 35 flats.
• Stacked in SiriL, edited in SiriL, Starnet V2, recombined in GIMP and star reduction in GIMP.

Comments / criticism / improvements to make are welcome 😃

Snowy garden setup:

NGC 7000, North America Nebula:

IC 5070, Pelican Nebula:

Not 100% happy due to never ending tilt issues. Given that I leave the rig setup in the house, so I don't lose the balance, camera angle, etc, it amazes me that one night I can have ASTAP report circa 5% tilt and others 30% ! All I change is the battery in the camera, so I'm suspecting a loose connection somewhere but I've yet to find it. Also not overly happy with the noise in the regions of fainter nebulosity. Did I push my stretches too hard, or should I persevere and get more data on each?

 

 

Finally, as an added bonus and to continue learning this hobby, I decided to investigate mosaic images. I was a bit dubious it would work due to the tilt issues, but I got it to work first time! 😎 Not the largest of mosaic's ever created mind, but using the individual 2 stacks from SiriL, I stitched them together in ASTAP and then edited in the same way as the individual images. I added a bit more saturation to this one, and pixel peeping reveals some dreadful stars in areas, but for a first attempt I'm pretty happy !

 

[teoria_del_big_bang]

Vey nice images.

The one of your setup seems to show a very bright floodlight just over top of the fence, maybe from a meighbours garden, isn't that a big issue for you ?

Steve

[WolfieGlos]

4 minutes ago, teoria_del_big_bang said:

Vey nice images.

The one of your setup seems to show a very bright floodlight just over top of the fence, maybe from a meighbours garden, isn't that a big issue for you ?

Steve

Thanks 😃

That's two streetlights on the lane (one is hidden behind the tripod, you can see the flare!). Generally it's fine and admittedly at that point Cygnus was lower in the sky so I could photo the snow on the ground. I'd say that was taken at circa 9/10pm, as Cygnus was starting above my house, behind the photo.

[teoria_del_big_bang]

1 minute ago, WolfieGlos said:

Thanks 😃

That's two streetlights on the lane (one is hidden behind the tripod, you can see the flare!). Generally it's fine and admittedly at that point Cygnus was lower in the sky so I could photo the snow on the ground. I'd say that was taken at circa 9/10pm, as Cygnus was starting above my house, behind the photo.

Ah probably looks far brighter on the image than it really is 🙂 

I guess there are very few of us on SGL that does not have some nearby LP to contend with, certainly those of us in UK.

Steve

 

[WolfieGlos]

11 minutes ago, teoria_del_big_bang said:

Ah probably looks far brighter on the image than it really is 🙂 

I guess there are very few of us on SGL that does not have some nearby LP to contend with, certainly those of us in UK.

Steve

 

Haha yeah probably is!

Luckily for me beyond those lights is nothing but fields, a few villages...and Wales, so generally it's quite good for LP. Sadly there's a third light to the side of my house, which pretty much kills the south-western portion of the sky for me. I bet Skipton must give you some nice dark skies, especially up on the moors.

Chris

[teoria_del_big_bang]

1 minute ago, WolfieGlos said:

Haha yeah probably is!

Luckily for me beyond those lights is nothing but fields, a few villages...and Wales, so generally it's quite good for LP. Sadly there's a third light to the side of my house, which pretty much kills the south-western portion of the sky for me. I bet Skipton must give you some nice dark skies, especially up on the moors.

Chris

When I started AP about 4 years ago it was pretty good, for a big town as I was right at the edge of the town, almost the last house, and very little PL from the back garden.
4 years on there is a new housing estate being built to one side, although obscured by a railway banking, but a vets practice whose car park is at bottom of my garden (albeit about 100 yards away) has thought they need floodlights enough to host a nighttime football match so, RGB stuff is difficult but NB still okay.
And you are correct there are lots of darks skies very close by and I do need a lighter, maybe widefield setup so I can get more mobile 🙂 

Steve