IC 1985, OSC, 12 Nov 2015 (David Dearden)

IC 1985, OSC, 12 Nov 2015

Came home pretty beat from teaching all day, but decided to get a session in anyway. The nebulosity in this nebula reminds me a little of the nearby Pleiades. Started my sync from α Per and as usual had an easy PicGoto from there. The nebulosity is dimmer than I was expecting, and there is a very bright star in the field of view that will no doubt make processing interesting. I seemed to get better guiding after the meridian flip, but the stars were a little “eggy” and needed repair. Again, balance is critical on my mount and I don't have the optimum setup figured out even after all this time. Like the night before, the non-drizzled stack looks a bit better to me than the 2x drizzle. A lot of stretching was needed to bring up the nebula, which then really bloated the stars. The original image came out with more red than I like; I think the bright star messed up the color balance so my normal workflow was not adequate. So I reduced the red bias to something a little more pleasing to me.

Date: 12 Nov 2015

Subject: IC 1985

Scope: AT8IN

Filter: Baader UHC-S

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

Guiding: Orion ST-80 + DSI Ic + PHD 2.5.0.7 (Win 7 ASCOM)

Camera: DSI IIc, no chiller CCD 2 °C

Acquisition: Nebulosity 4.0.3, no dither

Exposure: 30x600 s

Stacking: Neb 4, bad pixel map, bias included, 33 flats, OSC nebula filter, match histograms, deBayer & square, trans+rot align, 40-60%tile stack.

Processing: StarTools 1.4.305 Crop; Wipe 75%; Develop 85.17%; HDR optimize; Color: scientific, red bias reduce 1.58, 250%; Deconvolute 2.3 pix; Life: moderate; Track 4.5 pix, Smoothness 84%; Magic: shrink 2 pixels. CS6 Astronomy Tools deep space noise reduction; increase star color; make stars smaller; Star Tools repair:warp; liquify/pucker; Astroframe.

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