Imaging telescopes or lenses: Takahashi FSQ-106 ED
Imaging cameras: Starlight Xpress SX-814 Trius Monochrome CCD
Guiding cameras: Starlight-XPress Lodestar Autoguider
Software: Sequence Generator Pro · Photoshop CS6 · PIXINSIGHT 1.8
Filters: Astrodon 3nm SII · Astrodon 3nm OIII · Ha 3nm · Red · Green · Blue · Astrodon L-NIR
Accessory: Lakeside Astro Motor Focus System · Starlight Xpress SX 'Maxi wheel' · Starlight Instruments FTF3545B-A Focuser
Dates:March 29, 2019
Frames:
Astrodon 3nm OIII: 7x600" bin 1x1
Astrodon 3nm OIII: 8x600" bin 2x2
Astrodon 3nm SII: 17x600" bin 1x1
Blue: 49x180" bin 2x2
Green: 51x180" bin 2x2
Ha 3nm: 17x600" bin 1x1
Ha 3nm: 7x600" bin 2x2
Astrodon L-NIR: 32x900" bin 2x2
Red: 50x300" bin 2x2
Integration: 26.5 hours
Avg. Moon age: 23.33 days
Avg. Moon phase: 37.51%
Bortle Dark-Sky Scale: 8.00
Mean SQM: 18.60
Astrometry.net job: 2752054
RA center: 4h 39' 37"
DEC center: +50° 38' 31"
Pixel scale: 1.435 arcsec/pixel
Orientation: 359.519 degrees
Field radius: 0.841 degrees
Resolution: 3270x2670
Locations: The Hills Observatory, Manchester, United Kingdom
Data source: Backyard
This turned out a tricky image to process and took many iterations to get the final result. Although I took lots of RGB subs, using that data for the dust was not easy as the data was quite noisy due to the city light pollution from my home. I ended up mainly using the Near InfraRed data which was cleaner.
Adding the RGB data to the narrowband was also difficult as the red signal was very strong throwing the colour of the nebulae off.
So in the end I processed the narrowband data as starless (using the new excellent StarNet++ module in PixInsight by Nikita Misiura) The NIR(L) image was also processed starless and just used for the dust. The RGB was used for the stars using a Ha mask to reduce the red in the RGB image and a starless RGB image was also added with the NIR for the dust.
All combined in Photoshop with different filters on separate layers.
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