Another look, this time with 425 mm FL at F/2. This one hour stack (12 x 300s) ought to be the equivalent of 4 hours at F/4. It certainly shows much more detail than my previous images at 200 mm FL.
Colors have been stretched, along with MURE denoise, and local histogram equalization to bring out the rumpled details in the central nebular regions. The "antenna" dark clouds now actually look more like dark clouds floating in front, rather than as a "break" in the nebula as in the previous shorter focal lenght and shorter equivalent exposure images.
---
Revision shows what's actually supported by the data, and not just bouncing noise....
---
Revision has vastly improved flats preprocessing
---
Added new data from tonight. 2.5 hrs of HyperStar C8 integration at F/2 !! This seems about the limit for my moderately clear Tucson skies. The nebula is to the south, in the fog of city lights about 5 miles away.
... and let's back off on the deconvolution and dark structure enhancement. A little goes a long way, and like reverb on music, it is tempting to use too much.
I see, from studying Patrick's results (
http://www.astrobin.com/234156/ ) that the level of detail increases roughly as the square of the focal length. Compare my earlier images taken at 200 mm focal length with this one at 425 mm FL, and then Patrick's at 2,000 mm FL. I see about 4x more detail in this image compared to my 200 mm image, and Patrick's has about 25 times more detail in his than this one.
Comments