Imaging telescopes or lenses: Schulman 0.8m Reflector RCOS
Imaging cameras: Kodak 16803 SBIG STX
Guiding cameras: Kodak 16803 SBIG STX
Software: PhotoShop Creative Cloud Adobe · CCDStack2 Stan Moore
Filters: Broadband RGB AstroDon Gen II
Dates:Dec. 15, 2013
Frames: 51x300"
Integration: 4.2 hours
Avg. Moon age: 13.05 days
Avg. Moon phase: 96.71%
Astrometry.net job: 4335261
RA center: 6h 19' 57"
DEC center: -10° 38' 9"
Pixel scale: 0.326 arcsec/pixel
Orientation: -11.955 degrees
Field radius: 0.114 degrees
Resolution: 2003x1518
Locations: Mount Lemmon SkyCenter, Tucson, AZ, United States
This is the Red Rectangle- made famous by an HST image. The picture captured here, at the time, was the highest resolution ground-based image of it in full (RGB) color! The HST picture is wonderful..but the filters are not broadband and the colors are mapped. So... no one (in the astrophotography community) knew what color(s) it actually was! (Spoiler... it is mostly red. lol )
Soon after, many aficionados began to try to capture this as well (not but a few weeks later the Chart32 team in Chile with the same size telescope were inspired to do so.). I think this image still stands the test of time.
This object also represents a high density DIQ example. Consider the ratio of the amount of time spent on the number of pixels the object subtends. Throughout my career I have never shied away from these- although it is hard to do with so many much larger/brighter baubles in the sky.
If you like these kinds of images, please like an follow me!
Thanks,
-adam
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