Celestial hemisphere:  Northern  ·  Constellation: Cassiopeia (Cas)
Heckathorn-Fesen-Gull 1 (HFG1 / PK 136+05) and Abell 6, Chris Sullivan
Heckathorn-Fesen-Gull 1 (HFG1 / PK 136+05) and Abell 6
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Heckathorn-Fesen-Gull 1 (HFG1 / PK 136+05) and Abell 6

Heckathorn-Fesen-Gull 1 (HFG1 / PK 136+05) and Abell 6, Chris Sullivan
Heckathorn-Fesen-Gull 1 (HFG1 / PK 136+05) and Abell 6
Powered byPixInsight

Heckathorn-Fesen-Gull 1 (HFG1 / PK 136+05) and Abell 6

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Description

I’m betting I’m the only astrophotographer who has ever tried HFG1 before giving M31 or M45 a shot. Anyway, after having concentrated on a couple of galaxies, I wanted to do a really challenging narrowband image, but this was even more challenging than I was expecting. I’ve been wanting to do HFG1 since I first saw Stephane Zoll’s version, which brought me to Nico Geisler and Frank Iwaszkiewicz’s absolute masterpiece of this duo. Even with more integration time, I couldn’t approach the detail or luminosity they were able to achieve. I'm starting to realize why people spend so much on those 3 nm Astrodons... I’m going to have at least a week of cloudy nights ahead – I might try downloading Astro Pixel Processor and seeing if it can help me bring out more detail and keep down the noise.

Comments

Revisions

    Heckathorn-Fesen-Gull 1 (HFG1 / PK 136+05) and Abell 6, Chris Sullivan
    Original
    Heckathorn-Fesen-Gull 1 (HFG1 / PK 136+05) and Abell 6, Chris Sullivan
    B
    Heckathorn-Fesen-Gull 1 (HFG1 / PK 136+05) and Abell 6, Chris Sullivan
    C
    Heckathorn-Fesen-Gull 1 (HFG1 / PK 136+05) and Abell 6, Chris Sullivan
    D
    Heckathorn-Fesen-Gull 1 (HFG1 / PK 136+05) and Abell 6, Chris Sullivan
    E
    Heckathorn-Fesen-Gull 1 (HFG1 / PK 136+05) and Abell 6, Chris Sullivan
    F
    Heckathorn-Fesen-Gull 1 (HFG1 / PK 136+05) and Abell 6, Chris Sullivan
    G
  • Final
    Heckathorn-Fesen-Gull 1 (HFG1 / PK 136+05) and Abell 6, Chris Sullivan
    H

B

Description: I restacked without bias frames and used log/square root when applying changes to the stacks before exporting them. It allowed me to sharpen it more and push it further without introducing too much noise - noise issues kept me from taking this as far as I wanted in the previous version.

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C

Description: Added 22 hours of data.

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D

Description: Additional noise reduction from PixInsight.

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E

Description: 11/19/2018: Inspired by Gary Imm's version and Eric Coles' amazing IOTD, I went back to my original data and decided to reprocess. The first thing I noticed was that I was clearly using the wrong flats for Ha, which COMPLETELY screwed up all the background hydrogen. (ARGH!) The second thing I noticed was no matter how I stacked, I couldn't get my darks to apply correctly. This resulted in far more noise than should be in there and TONS of hot pixels. I don't know what's going on there, but I do remember manually correcting the hot pixels last year. I don't have the patience for that here and I can't retake darks right now - first off, it's been too long, but secondly, my camera is on another continent at the moment. The data seem a bit flawed to me. Oh well - just another excuse to shoot this one again in a few years.

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F

Description: Re-added the luminance and selective color adjustments. Nothing to do about the noise though.

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G

Description: Mainly tried to get the red to be less brown. I also re-added parts of the luminance and reduced noise in the red channel. I need to stop reprocessing this one...

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H

Description: 09/17/2019: I'm trying to improve the muddy color, but I really need to just reshoot this one. Too many beginner mistakes.

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Sky plot

Sky plot

Histogram

Heckathorn-Fesen-Gull 1 (HFG1 / PK 136+05) and Abell 6, Chris Sullivan