The Rho Ophiuchi Cloud Complex - 9 Panel Mosaic (Matt Harbison)

The Rho Ophiuchi Cloud Complex - 9 Panel Mosaic

Some of the most beautiful colors in our galaxy are found in Scorpius around the Rho Ophiuchi Cloud Complex. Taken over 5 days in the high desert with the following details:

9 Panel Mosaic of the Rho Ophiuchi Cloud Complex.

Shot in Marathon Texas at the Marathon Motel & RV Park during the new moon in June over the course of 4 nights. 9 panel mosaic consists of:

12 x 180s L

12 x 180s R

12 x 180s G

12 x 180s B

Flats taken after each session. Bias and Darks from my library.

2 x William Optics 132 FLT 5.5 Telescope w/ Flat 7 @ 5.6

Lum & Red shot on scope 1, Green and Blue shot on scope 2

Astro Physics 1100 GTO

QHY 16200 x 2

QHY 5LII Guide Camera on WO 50mm Scope

Calibrated, Combined, and Exported in Pixinsight. Levels and Color adjustment in Photoshop. Plate Solve from Pixinsight.

Panel Process:

-Dynamic crop per panel

-Batch PreProcessing used to combine flats, darks, and bias frames. Cosmetic Correction used on each panel.

-Dynamic Background adjustment per panel

-Photometric Color Calibration per panel

-Histogram Transformation applied

-Noise Reduction via SCNR Green Channel

-Export to master TIF for full color panel

Mosaic Process: ONGOING-

-Each Channel solved via Image Solver in Pixinsight- Tedious but effective and ensures a valid plate solve.

-Saved as .Tiff & .Xisf per channel

-Mosaic By Coordinates Script ran on each channel master to create a master per channel.

-EXTREMELY GOOD NOTES taken per panel for image center and Photometric Color Calibration (If you don't, you'll redo the process over and over- Sky Safari is your friend.

-Combination via Gradient Merge Mosaic per channel

-Optional combination of LRGB targets yield less color & slightly better combination to my eye. YMMV.

Barnard Astronomical Society of Chattanooga
QHY Users Group

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	Image of the day	Top pick	Top pick nominations	Total submitted
Deep sky
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Extremely wide field
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Landscape

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Backyard
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Mix of multiple sources
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Status	Advanced success
Started	...
Astrometry.net job	2117937
PixInsight job	T5DMFQYC9QDIX6MXZAK2L8Q1SAZM5650
PixInsight queue size	n/a
PixInsight stage	TASK_LOG

RA (center)	16h27m28s.0
RA (top/left)	16h20m47s.2
RA (top/right)	16h15m46s.0
RA (bottom/right)	16h34m32s.7
RA (bottom/left)	16h38m45s.10

Dec (center)	-25°03′32″
Dec (top/left)	-22°01′18″
Dec (top/right)	-27°13′17″
Dec (bottom/right)	-28°05′02″
Dec (bottom/left)	-22°50′34″

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