Imaging telescopes or lenses: SkyWatcher Esprit 100ED Super APO Triplet
Imaging cameras: SBIG STT 8300M · ZWO ASI1600MM-Cool
Mounts: SkyWatcher AZ-EQ5 GT
Guiding telescopes or lenses: SkyWatcher Esprit 100ED Super APO Triplet
Guiding cameras: QHYCCD QHY5L-IIm
Software: Pleaides Astrophoto PixInsight 1.8 Ripley · Sequence Generator Pro · Photoshop CC · Straton · Astro Pixel Processor
Filters: Baader 7nm Ha · B · G · R
Accessory: Lacerta Motorfokus · OAG · ZWO EFW 8x 1.25" · Skywatcher Field Flattener for Esprit 100
Dates:Feb. 17, 2019 , Feb. 23, 2019 , Feb. 25, 2019 , Feb. 27, 2019
Frames:
Baader 7nm Ha: 177x180" (gain: 139.00) -30C bin 1x1
B: 136x60" (gain: 76.00) -30C bin 1x1
G: 134x60" (gain: 76.00) -30C bin 1x1
R: 139x60" (gain: 76.00) -30C bin 1x1
Integration: 15.7 hours
Darks: ~32
Flats: ~16
Flat darks: ~16
Avg. Moon age: 18.91 days
Avg. Moon phase: 68.37%
Bortle Dark-Sky Scale: 5.00
Mean FWHM: 3.00
Temperature: 5.00
Astrometry.net job: 2580749
RA center: 5h 40' 54"
DEC center: -2° 12' 43"
Pixel scale: 1.411 arcsec/pixel
Orientation: -92.270 degrees
Field radius: 1.041 degrees
Resolution: 4308x3113
Data source: Backyard
I cannot fathom that I never took a photo of this iconic object before. Three years into this hobby I only took some HA of it so far. So this winter I thought that it's time. I knew about the challenges but I was prepared :)
The most challenging aspect is obviously keeping Alnitak in check. I did this by utilizing data from another camera type and mixed it 50/50 with the ASI data so the diffraction effects would be reduced a bit. The halo from my Baader blue filter is also pretty massive and also caused me some problems trying to reduce.
Adding a ton of HA data really helped me bring out the details though. All in all I think this is an insanely pretty region of space.
I recently read that the horsehead is 3 lightyears high. Imagine just this fact. A particle of light will need three years (!) to travel from the horseheads top to it's bottom. Fascinating!
Edit: I just finally found out where I got the 8300 sensor data from. It was from DSW public data. I downloaded it some time ago and couldn't figure out where I got it from until I compared the file sizes with a fresh download just now. So to be 100% transparent here: The 16h of my data I combined with 90m of R, G, B data from DSW to tame the Alnitak reflections from the ASI. Still credit is due: Some (~33%) of the color data is: "Image Acquisition by the staff at Deep Sky West Remote Observatory (www.DeepSkyWest.com)"
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