Dark Clouds in Lupus - Mosaic (Gabriel R. Santos (grsotnas))

Dark Clouds in Lupus - Mosaic

Across this stunningly rich starfield, in Lupus (the Wolf) and Norma (the Square), lies some beautiful dark nebulosity. The dark clouds are really large in angular size, as it greatly fills the ~9x9º field of this 200mm 2 panel Mosaic. In the field's center, the dark nebulae Sandqvist 6, 7, 9,

10 (or SL 7/B228) and Sandqvist 14

are the main attraction. In the edge of the left hand corner there's another dark nebula identified as Sandqvist 11 (see

[*]).

Finding the correct catalogue names of this rarely imaged objects is/was quite a challenge. Plate solving in astrometry/AB does not offer dark nebula catalogues. What I found may even be incorrect. If possible, help with the correct cataloguing/naming of the nebulae would be more than appreciated - contact or comment. For this images, I used several images/references found online, especially B. Hubl website.

This is a "first" in many aspects of my astroimaging experience. My 1st DSO processed result from my new Canon 80D; 1st successful DSO Mosaic with calibration frames; 1st image stacked in AstroPixelProcessor, using its Mosaic engine with MBB. I'd call this image pretty nice "1st light" - as things normally tend to go worng when we're talking about "1st lights" =D

Calibration, Registration/Mosaic and Stacking done in AstroPixelProcessor. Post-processed in Adobe Photoshop CC with plugins. File management and final touches in Adobe Lightroom CC.

*Please check the full image 3000px - resized from original)*

Constructive criticism, comments and suggestions are more than welcome in the comments section. Thank's for taking your time to look at this image.

Taken from Rural Skies (Bortle 3-4; NELM ~6.2; SQM ~21.6*calculated), from Cristina, MG, Brazil (22ºS latitude).

Date and Time: July 20th, 2017, at 21h (UTC-3, start of capture)

Camera: Unmodded Canon 80D, at ISO 800

Lens: Tamron 70-200mm f/2.8, operated at 200mm f/3.5

Mount: Sky-Watcher HEQ5, tracking, guided

Guiding: Starguider 50mm Guidescope + ASI120mm + PHD2; ~1.8" RMS

Exposure Detail: 2 Frame Mosaic, at 7 and 8x240s each (total 60min)

Cloudy Nights
Objects of the South - negative declination only
Camera Lens Astrophotography

	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	1709724
PixInsight job	M05HG2PR1DSZH3AUOKFV4PQ0366VTLGG
PixInsight queue size	n/a
PixInsight stage	TASK_LOG

RA (center)	16h07m36s.50
RA (top/left)	15h50m59s.99
RA (top/right)	15h50m18s.93
RA (bottom/right)	16h26m03s.50
RA (bottom/left)	16h23m01s.77

Dec (center)	-40°52′31″.2
Dec (top/left)	-37°24′37″.0
Dec (top/right)	-44°23′53″.1
Dec (bottom/right)	-44°11′15″.3
Dec (bottom/left)	-37°13′06″.9

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