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

The Rho Ophiuchi Cloud Complex - 9 Panel Mosaic

The Rho Ohphiuchi Cloud Complex- A 9 Panel mosaic shot in Marathon Texas at the Marathon Motel & RV Park during the new moon in June over the course of 4 nights. Some of the most beautiful colors in our galaxy are found in Scorpius around the Rho Ophiuchi Cloud Complex and I was happy to finally catch their photons on my telescope!

Technical Details:

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.

Equipment Dtails:

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 scope2

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:

-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.

Original
Final
B

B

Description: Color Version

Uploaded: ...

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
Solar system
Extremely wide field
Star trails
Northern lights
Noctilucent clouds
Landscape

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Backyard
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Own remote observatory
Amateur hosting facility
Public amaeteur data
Professional, scientific grade data
Mix of multiple sources
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Status	Advanced success
Started	...
Astrometry.net job	2117950
PixInsight job	0VEJ1HZEEWGSA2LUX7YYUAHPC0R9AITY
PixInsight queue size	n/a
PixInsight stage	n/a

RA (center)	16h27m28s.1
RA (top/left)	16h20m46s.6
RA (top/right)	16h15m45s.3
RA (bottom/right)	16h34m30s.8
RA (bottom/left)	16h38m46s.1

Dec (center)	-25°03′33″
Dec (top/left)	-22°01′20″
Dec (top/right)	-27°13′24″
Dec (bottom/right)	-28°04′20″
Dec (bottom/left)	-22°50′29″

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