Flame Nebula and Horsehead Nebula as seen from the back yard.

This is a sum of 11 subs taken in the back yard as a part of testing. I didn't expect to get any results, so I'm pleased with the stack as it stands. There are some blown out stars resulting in color shifts that are difficult to control. Also, there are some flares on the filter that are also hard to control.

Still, this is a good exercise in using Pix Insight to control noise, so I'm learning.

Shot details:

Stellarvue SV4 on Losmandy G11

Full spectrum Pentax K10D with Baader Moon & Skyglow and UV/IR filters

11 total subs of 10 minutes at 400 ISO.

Calibrated with Maxim

Stacked in DSS

Processed with PixInsight: DBE, MT, Masked Stretch, ADCNR, Unsharp Mask. Exported to LR3 for final touch and upload.

Here's the platesolve results:

Referentiation Matrix (Gnomonic projection = Matrix * Coords[x,y]):

-0.000071543889 -0.000525864299 +0.821218890956

+0.000525889163 -0.000071501271 -0.922355430350

+0.000000000000 +0.000000000000 +1.000000000000

Resolution ........ 1.911 arcsec/pix

Rotation .......... 82.257 deg

Focal ............. 655.31 mm

Pixel size ........ 6.07 um

Field of view ..... 2d 2' 56.8" x 1d 22' 43.7"

Image center ...... RA: 05 40 46.628 Dec: -02 18 48.26

Image bounds:

top-left ....... RA: 05 44 03.995 Dec: -03 14 07.23

top-right ...... RA: 05 42 57.425 Dec: -01 12 19.37

bottom-left .... RA: 05 38 35.627 Dec: -03 25 16.40

bottom-right ... RA: 05 37 29.518 Dec: -01 23 27.58

I'll be returning to this location in the future to see what more I can get, especially in a darker location and with different filters.

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For revision B, I added another night's worth of data that was captured using the IDAS LPR filter.

I also changed my processing style to eliminate a lot of the blue that was coming in from bad debayering.

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For revision C, I passed the file through Noiseware to handle the noise that was simply baffling my efforts to control it within PixInsight.

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For revision D, I went for a deep stretch because of the success of using Noiseware.