NGC 1499 - California Nebula in SHO Palette (EasyQuest)

NGC 1499 - California Nebula in SHO Palette

Comments
For this project. I processed SHO palette of NGC 1499 - California Nebula in the constellation Perseus. The image turn out as good as I can get it without clipping the bright areas of the California Nebula. Color balance the edges for OIII was a challenge as there might have been some gradient from the moon? Overall, I am pretty happy with it.

Moon Phase, Location, and Date

Moon Phase in November: 70%, 87%, 93%, 92%, 85%, 83%, 60%, 40%
Moon Phase in December: 7%, 23%
Murfreesboro, TN (Bortle 6)
November 13, 15, 16, 22, 23, 26, 28, 2021
December 6, 8, 2021

Equipment

Telescope/Lens: William Optics Fluorostar 91 (540 mm at f/5.9)
Flattener/Reducer: FLAT6AIII special edition for Fluorostar 91 (432 mm at f/4.72)
Filter: Chroma 36mm SII 3nm Telescope Filter - Unmounted
Filter: Chroma 36mm HA 3nm Telescope Filter - Unmounted
Filter: Chroma 36mm OIII 3nm Telescope Filter - Unmounted
Mount: Sky-Watcher EQ6-R Pro (Used iOptron Tri-pier with Adapter 8036-TK)
Guide Scope: William Optics 50mm Guiding Scope (Color: Gold)
Guider: ZWO ASI120MM-MINI
Dew Heater Controller: Pegasus Astro Pocket Powerbox Micro (Clean up Cables)
Dew Heater: Dew Not 4" Dew Heater Strip - DN005
Dew Heater: Dew Not 1" Dew Heater Strip - DN002
Camera: ZWO ASI2600MM Pro
Polar Alignment: QHYCCD Polemaster (Precise polar alignment)
Laptop (For imaging, dither, auto guiding, plate solve)

Software

PHD2 (For Auto Guiding)
QHYCCD PoleMaster Software (Polar Alignment)
Astrophotography Tool (APT) (For Dither, plate solve, mount control)
EQMOD (Remove Hand Controller and allow pulse guiding)
Pegasus Astro Pocket Powerbox (Control the Pocket Powerbox Micro)
Deep Sky Stacker (Stacking Frames)
Photoshop (Processing)
PixInsight (Processing)

Acquisition

Exposure Total: 70 hrs
SII - 288 x 300s (24 hrs)
HA - 288 x 300s (24 hrs)
OIII - 264 x 300s (22 hrs)

Temperature: -10°C on all calibration frames as well as light frames

100 Flats for OIII
80 Flats for HA and SII
20 Darks (Used Master Dark file)
20 Bias (Used Master Bias file)
Gain: 100 (Unity Gain)
Bin: 1x1
Offset: Left Default

Processing in Photoshop and PixInsight

Stacked in DSS
Edited in Photoshop
RC-Astro GradientXTerminator
RC-Astro StarXTerminator in Photoshop
Adjusted levels
Adjusted Curves
Selective Curves Adjustment
Color Correction
Blacks Correction
Vibrance Applied
Clarity Applied
Dehaze Applied
Denoising using Camera Raw Filter
Light Sharpening Applied
Noise reduction on all channels
Luminance layer for highlights
Cropped
Morphological Transformation in PixInsight for Star reduction
Star correction

	Distinct awarded users	Total awarded images
Image of the day
Top picks
Top pick nominations

	Image of the day	Top pick	Top pick nominations	Total submitted
Deep sky
Solar system
Extremely wide field
Star trails
Northern lights
Noctilucent clouds
Landscape

	Image of the day	Top pick	Top pick nominations	Total submitted
Backyard
Traveller
Own remote observatory
Amateur hosting facility
Public amaeteur data
Professional, scientific grade data
Mix of multiple sources
Other
Unknown

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Status	Advanced success
Started	...
Astrometry.net job	5334748
PixInsight job	K0ZS908AHQMGRW8U6RO2KF9NAP2BQHFL
PixInsight queue size	n/a
PixInsight stage	TASK_LOG

RA (center)	04h00m53s.99
RA (top/left)	03h53m40s.83
RA (top/right)	04h08m17s.53
RA (bottom/right)	04h08m19s.12
RA (bottom/left)	03h53m19s.40

Dec (center)	+36°16′20″.3
Dec (top/left)	+35°15′30″.1
Dec (top/right)	+35°18′35″.7
Dec (bottom/right)	+37°15′19″.1
Dec (bottom/left)	+37°12′20″.3

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