B33 - 'Lunacy' under a full moon (Tom Gray)

B33 - 'Lunacy' under a full moon

At full moon we sometimes do strange things...like trying to image a DSO, which can be difficult at the best of times. I'm amazed by narrowband, and have posted many times how my Optolong L-eNhance filter allows me to image even under a full moon!

Clearly, there are limitations, and despite keeping exposures short at 120s, and using 2x2 binning to boost SNR, there is a lot of noise! I tried to reduce this by combining 12 x 300s exposures, which certainly helped, but I found the gradients impossible to remove. I expect the OIII is introducing these, and using a dedicated Halpha filter would help. Perhaps processing the exposures separately and then layering would also work.

Far from my best, it is my final image of 2020; I wanted to post it partly as a record of my journey over the past year, and to acknowledge the encouragement, help and support I have received from so many other imagers around the world.

Let's hope 2021 is better for us all, as we adapt to a new normal. I wish you all a happy, healthy New Year and clear skies.

Optolong L-eNhance filter
Low-Cost Astrophotography
Schmidt-Cassegrain Telescope (SCT) Imagers
Altair Astro 183 M/C Hypercams
UK Astro-Imaging

Please note: The following tables are updated every 24 hours.

Distribution of astrophotographers

This table shows the number of distinct astrophotographers who have been assigned and IOTD/TP award compared to the total number of images awarded.
	Distinct awarded users	Total awarded images
Image of the day
Top picks
Top pick nominations

Distribution of subject types

This table shows the distribution of awards per subject type, compared to the popularity of images of that subject type.
	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

Distribution of data sources

This table shows the distribution of awards per data source, compared to the popularity of images acquired from that data source.
	Image of the day	Top pick	Top pick nominations	Total submitted
Backyard
Traveller
Own remote observatory
Amateur hosting facility
Public amaeteur data
Professional, scientific grade data
Mix of multiple sources
Other
Unknown

The “AstroBin Image of the Day and Top Picks”, or IOTD/TP, is a long-running system to promote beautiful, interesting, peculiar, or otherwise amazing astrophotographs, with a focus on technical excellence. Learn more.

Submitted The date and time when you submitted this image for IOTD/TP consideration.	...
Views by Submitters (available since September 19th, 2023) Every image is assigned to 50% of available Submitters. In the event that at least 80% of them don't view the image before its time in the IOTD/TP process expires, it's assigned to the other 50% of Submitters and the process begins anew.
Promotions by Submitters When 3 distinct Submitters promote the image, it moves on to the next stage of the process: evaluation for Top Pick status. This requirement, in addition to anonymization of images and distribution to only a subset of them, prevents biases and ensures that the best images are selected.
Promotions by Reviewers When 3 distinct Reviewers promote the image, it moves on to the next stage of the process: evaluation for IOTD status.
Early dismissal Staff members have a lot of images to inspect on a daily basis, and they can dismiss images if they believe they don't meet the requirements for IOTD/TP selection. If an image is dismissed 5 times, it's removed from the process. This streamlines the process and ensures that any bias present in promotions could be overruled by other staff members.

Status	Basic failed
Started	...
Astrometry.net job	4124176
PixInsight job	n/a
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