Imaging telescopes or lenses: Explore Scientific ED140 APO
Imaging cameras: ZWO ASI 294MC PRO ASI294MC PRO
Mounts: iOptron cem60
Guiding cameras: Altair Astro GPCAM2 AR0130 Mono
Focal reducers: Starfield 0.8x Focal Reducer
Software: Astro Photography Tool APT · photoshop cc · DeepSkyStacker (DSS) Deepskystacker 3.3.6
Filters: Astromania UV/IR (2")
Dates:June 15, 2018
Frames: 60x180"
Integration: 3.0 hours
Avg. Moon age: 1.94 days
Avg. Moon phase: 4.18%
Astrometry.net job: 3474580
RA center: 18h 2' 19"
DEC center: -22° 56' 6"
Pixel scale: 2.150 arcsec/pixel
Orientation: 72.829 degrees
Field radius: 0.692 degrees
Resolution: 1818x1439
Data source: Traveller
Here is the Trifid Nebula (M20) captured under the dark skies of the Cherry Springs Star Party in 2018.
Messier 20 is one of my favorite summertime deep-sky astrophotography targets, and it's only available for a short time from my location.
This incredible "combination nebula" has got it all, reflection, emission, dark nebula - it's glorious.
My latest effort at processing this data using the methods described in my image processing guide.
I shot it with the ZWO ASI294MC Pro, and a generic UV/IR cut filter (Astromania). Pretty cool to see these magnificent colors out of this camera.
The telescope was an Explore Scientific ED140 refractor, which was on loan from Explore Scientific. There was no dedicated field flattener/corrector available for the scope at the time, so I used a Starfield 0.8X reducer flattener, which was a decent fit, but there was definitely something going on with the stars.
Anyway, I did my best to restore them - but still a little funny looking, especially in the lower right.
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