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North America Nebula and Pelican Nebula - Mosaic with the Star Adventurer, Paul Macklin
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North America Nebula and Pelican Nebula - Mosaic with the Star Adventurer

North America Nebula and Pelican Nebula - Mosaic with the Star Adventurer, Paul Macklin
Powered byPixInsight

North America Nebula and Pelican Nebula - Mosaic with the Star Adventurer

Equipment

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Acquisition details

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Description

This is a 2-panel mosaic from data gathered last year with a ZenithStar 61ii on a Star Adventurer. It was a test to see how far we can push a star tracker with RA-only guiding and no automated goto. The North America Nebula is 90 x 6 min = 9 hours. The Pelican Nebula is 113 x 6 min = 11.3 hours. Both panels were shot with a OSC with an L-extreme filter for dual narrowband. 

Since the Star Adventurer has no auto/goto, I positioned each panel manually: 
1. Find (RA,dec) coordinates in Stellarium
2. Manually position near a landmark star or object
3. Plate solve in ASIAIR
4. Note error in RA and dec, and manually adjust
5. If close enough, stop. Otherwise go to Step 3. 

By getting accurate polar alignment error < 10" on each axis (helped along by a William Optics base) and balancing as well as I could (use an extra 1 kg counterweight), I was able to get reliable 360 second guided subs on this setup. 

Each panel is processed separately in Astro Pixel Processor. 
1. Set  to "Ha-OIII extract Ha."
2. Calibrate, analyze stars, register, and normalize like normal. 
2. Integrate extracted Ha. Choose "reference" instead of full. 
3. Remove light pollution on Ha. 
4. Set to "Ha-OIII extract OIII"
5. Skip calibrate, analyze, and register, adn go straight to normalize
6. Integrate OIII, and choose "reference" instead of full as well.
7. Remove light pollution on OIII. 

Now, it's time to stitch together the mosaic.
1. Load the stacked/corrected Ha and [OIII] frames as lights in Ha and Oxygen-III channels. 
2. Analyze stars. 
3. Register, using "mosaic" model. I use "pentagons", scale 1 to 10, disable "same camera/optics", and enable "dynamic distortion correction." 
4. Skip normalize
5. Integrate, setting "enable MBB" (I use 10-15%), I don't use LNC, as I find it tends to introduce wave-like artifacts. Careful light pollution processing on each Panel helps instead. Choose "integrate per channel" to create separate Ha and [OIII] mosaics. 
6. Use the "remove light pollution" tool on the individual Ha and [OIII] mosaics. 
7. Combine the Ha and [OIII] panels into HOO1 or HOO2, and adjust as needed. 
8. Optional: Do one last "calibrate background" (or remove light pollution) on the new RGB. 
9. Optional: Calibrate star color using RGB balance. 
10. Use star reduction. I tend to reduce to 80 or 85% by size and radius. 
11. Process in photoshop as you see fit.

Comments

Revisions

  • Final
    North America Nebula and Pelican Nebula - Mosaic with the Star Adventurer, Paul Macklin
    Original
  • North America Nebula and Pelican Nebula - Mosaic with the Star Adventurer, Paul Macklin
    B
  • North America Nebula and Pelican Nebula - Mosaic with the Star Adventurer, Paul Macklin
    C
  • North America Nebula and Pelican Nebula - Mosaic with the Star Adventurer, Paul Macklin
    D
  • North America Nebula and Pelican Nebula - Mosaic with the Star Adventurer, Paul Macklin
    E
  • North America Nebula and Pelican Nebula - Mosaic with the Star Adventurer, Paul Macklin
    F

B

Title: Uncropped Ha mosaic

Description: Uncropped hydrogen-alpha mosaic

Uploaded: ...

C

Title: Uncropped [OIII] mosaic

Description: uncropped oxygen-III mosaic

Uploaded: ...

D

Title: Uncropped RGB mosaic

Description: Uncropped mosaic using the original RGB, rather than extracted Ha and [OIII]

Uploaded: ...

E

Title: Uncropped HOO1 mosaic

Description: Uncropped HOO1 mosaic.

Uploaded: ...

F

Title: Zoom background

Uploaded: ...

Sky plot

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Histogram

North America Nebula and Pelican Nebula - Mosaic with the Star Adventurer, Paul Macklin