NGC 2683, "UFO Galaxy", UHC-S, 18 Feb 2015 (David Dearden)

NGC 2683, "UFO Galaxy", UHC-S, 18 Feb 2015

This is a new target for me; I saw some nice images on Astrobin and decided to give it a try even though it is a bit small for my rig. Finding was easy as usual; I synched on Pollux and then let the PicGoto do its thing. Guiding performance left something to be desired; I probably was not east-weighted sufficiently. I refocused several times. Imaged up to the meridian, did a meridian flip and pointed the scope approximately at the right place, then did an Astrotortilla plate solve to synch. I wasn't too far off just eyeballing it that way, but did a PicGoto slew to the target, aligned on the previous image, and resumed acquiring until dawn or the neighbor's tree (whichever came first; I haven't checked yet).

In the revision I processed differently (reflected below); principally, I did not mask out the galaxy core when I deconvoluted and I used a bit more saturation. I think I like the revised version a bit better.

Date: 18 Feb 2015

Subject: NGC 2683, “UFO Galaxy”

Scope: Astrotech AT8IN+High Point Scientific Coma Corrector

Filter: Baader UHC-S

Mount: CG-5 (Synta motors, PicGoto Simplificado)

Guiding: 9x50 Finder/Guider + DSI Ic + PHD 2.4.1 (Win 7 ASCOM)

Camera: DSI IIc no cooling (about 0 °C)

Acquisition: Nebulosity 3.3.2, no dither

Exposure: 46x600 s

Stacking: Neb 3.3.2, bad pixel map, bias included, 33 flats, histogram match, deBayer & square, trans+rot align, 40-60% median combine.

Processing: StarTools 1.3.5.289 Crop; Wipe; Develop 85.22%; Contrast; HDR:Reveal core; Color: Scientific, 225%; Deconvolute 2.6 pix; Life:Less=More; Track 2.0 pix. Photoshop CC 2014 + Carboni Astronomy Tools Deep space noise reduction; Increase star color; Layer masked unsharp mask for dust lane enhancement; Astroframe.

Original
Final
B

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Status	Advanced success
Started	...
Astrometry.net job	4588554
PixInsight job	3Z56LOHWP7THJP1CI9RUPYUS7SYRK643
PixInsight queue size	n/a
PixInsight stage	n/a

RA (center)	08h52m35s.43
RA (top/left)	08h53m39s.89
RA (top/right)	08h53m51s.80
RA (bottom/right)	08h51m30s.44
RA (bottom/left)	08h51m19s.36

Dec (center)	+33°25′14″.7
Dec (top/left)	+33°05′57″.7
Dec (top/right)	+33°42′35″.8
Dec (bottom/right)	+33°44′33″.1
Dec (bottom/left)	+33°07′52″.10

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