NGC 1333, OSC with UHC-S, 13 Nov 2015 (David Dearden)

NGC 1333, OSC with UHC-S, 13 Nov 2015

This nebula, like the Iris Nebula, reminds me of a light in a cloudy tunnel. I first attempted it a month ago and was so unhappy with the results I did not post them, so this was a second try. This nebula is pretty dim and I probably could have used longer subframes. This time I used the UHC-S filter, as usual because of proximity to Provo's light dome, although that really wasn't a factor in the long run. This was an easy PicGoto from ζ Per. Guiding performance was terrible at first, and I played with scope balance a lot to try to improve it. Eventually I settled on much more east-weighting than usual, which seemed to help; I decreased my RMS in RA by about a factor of 2. I had the same issues again after the meridian flip and again re-balanced with a lot of east weighting, but with less success (and less patience, as I wanted to go to bed). I still had to run Repair to fix the eggy stars. I’m getting close to pulling the trigger and buying a new mount that can actually handle this scope.

Date: 13 Nov 2015

Subject: NGC 1333

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: 50x600 s

Stacking: Neb 4, bad pixel map, bias included, 33 flats, OSC nebula filter, match histograms, deBayer & square, trans+rot align, DSS 2x drizzle with σ = 1.75 κ-σ stacking.

Processing: StarTools 1.4.305 Crop; Wipe 75%; Develop 86.93%; HDR optimize; Color: scientific, 220%; Deconvolute 4.0 pix; Life: moderate; Track 9.0 pix, Smoothness 89%; Repair:warp; Magic: shrink 4 pixels. CS6 Astronomy Tools deep space noise reduction; layer masked space noise reduction; increase star color; make stars smaller; levels/curves; liquify/pucker; Astroframe.

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