### Update 09th Jan 2023 #########################

The past 7 weeks of cloudy weather motivated myself to reprocess some old data. I tried some new processing techniques (slow transition to PixInsight & BlurXTerminator) regarding sharpening and stretching. Here is a before/after comparison gif of some details:



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Background: This turns out to be the final image of my (new) ZWO Asi 294. I bought the camera mostly because of the 10 year anniversary kit, including the EFW 7x36 and filters. Now it has been time to sell my cameras (Asi294 & Asi071) again in order to upgrade to an IMX571 mono camera. The APS-C size is just too seductive for my 750mm setup.

Processing: This turned out to be the first processing where I successfully combined RGB stars with a narrowband image (thanks to StarXTerminator V2 and a tutorial from @Daniel Nimmervoll). It took me quite a while to find a satisfying palette-formula and HSL manipulation... but I could have spend more time to work out the faint outer areas... but it's not gonna be the last time that I visit this magnificent "hole in the sky" ;-)
* stacked in APP
* removed light pollution (OIII only) in APP
* SHO palette in APP
* HSL manipulation in APP
* slightly sharpened in APP and exported a "middle" and a "high strech" which I combined in PS (as seen in Daniel's tutorials)
* Postprocessing in PS (StarXterminator; NoiseXTerminator; local contrast enhancement [astronomy tools], HLVG, camera raw filter for sharepening and color balance)
* RGB stack and star color calibration in APP
* RGB stars reduced to 75% in APP
* Starmask in Photoshp (via "StarXTerminator-Difference & Linear Dodge (Add)" technique) as seen in Daniel's tutorials
* star color and size optimization in Photoshop
Revision-D shows the actual SHO stack after APP export.

Compared to my "Elephant Trunk" it's a rather aggressive editing in terms of contrast, colors and especially star colors - but I love to try different styles. I am planning to edit an HSO version of this as well

Next Steps: Now that Germany could be called "Cloud City" it is probably a good time to start some new handcrafting... I ordered new bearings for my EQ6-R, and I also need to change my RA worm gear (wish me luck), so I will start on that while I wait for my Touptek DSP2600M. I also want to switch to OAG, fine tune my PHD settings and rework my cable management (once I get better balancing due to the new bearings). So it might be a while until start with my next image. But currently my guiding lays between 0.7-1.4", therefore I feel like it's a necessary step.

Fun Fact: I started astrophotography in November 2021 (exactly 1 year ago by the time this is beeing posted) and NGC281 was actually the first emission nebula I ever captured. Revision-C show my first attempt with 8h integration and my old color camera


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The Pacman Nebula (NGC 281) is a large emission nebula appearing in the constellation Cassiopeia. It is also catalogued as IC 11 and Sharpless 184 (Sh2-184). It was named the Pacman Nebula for its resemblance to Pac-Man, the character in the popular 1980s maze video game. In optical images, a dark dust lane forms the Pac-Man’s mouth.The Pacman Nebula lies approximately 9,200 light years away and stretches 48 light years across. It is a star-forming region that contains young stars, large dark dust lanes and Bok globules (Bok globules are small, dense dark nebulae packed with material from which new stars are formed). NGC 281 is associated with IC 1590 (Collinder 8), a young open cluster with an estimated age of 3.5 million years. The cluster has an apparent magnitude of 7.4. It contains 279 stars of magnitude 17 or brighter, including the multiple star system responsible for ionizing the gas in the nebula and making it glow. The O-type system lies near the centre of the nebula.

But Pacman isn’t gobbling up these stars. Instead, the nebula’s gas and dust are being used as raw ingredients to make new stars. However, the stars in IC 1590 are still plotting their escape from the Pacman Nebula, as open clusters are only loosely bound together and the grouping will eventually disperse within a few tens of millions of years.