CommentsFor this project, my biggest project yet is a four-panel mosaic of the Heart, Soul, and Fish Head Nebula in SHO palette in the constellation of Cassiopeia. After my two-panel mosaic of the North America and Pelican Nebula, I wanted to try the Heart and Soul but realized two-panel was not enough and planned on a four panel instead. To try to keep the panel even on exposure and balance, shoot about one hour and 30 minutes per panel per night and do this for each panel. Final image turn out as good as it can get the first time around processing this MASSIVE image file. I drizzled each panel, yes, I am a mad-man for doing this, for a size of 21165x12711. I had to down size to a more reasonable resolution, 7408x4449. Enjoy the image, looks fantastic in my eyes!
Moon Phase, Location, and Date- Moon Phase in September: 55%, 46%
- Moon Phase in October: 11%, 1%, 6%, 21%, 32%, 83%, 90%, 96%, 99%, 97%, 93%, 24%
- Moon Phase in November: 0%, 1%, 4%, 10%, 18%, 28%
- Murfreesboro, TN (Bortle 6)
- September 28, 29, 2021
- October 3, 7, 8, 10, 11, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 22, 23, 31 2021
- November 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 2021
Equipment- Telescope/Lens: William Optics Fluorostar 91 (540 mm at f/5.9)
- Flattener/Reducer: FLAT6AIII special edition for Fluorostar 91 (432 mm at f/4.72)
- Filter: Chroma 36mm SII 3nm Telescope Filter - Unmounted
- Filter: Chroma 36mm HA 3nm Telescope Filter - Unmounted
- Filter: Chroma 36mm OIII 3nm Telescope Filter - Unmounted
- Mount: Sky-Watcher HEQ5 Pro (Rowan Belt Modification )
- Guide Scope: William Optics 50mm Guiding Scope (Color: Gold)
- Guider: ZWO ASI120MM-MINI
- Dew Heater Controller: Pegasus Astro Pocket Powerbox Micro (Clean up Cables)
- Dew Heater: Dew Not 4" Dew Heater Strip - DN005
- Dew Heater: Dew Not 1" Dew Heater Strip - DN002
- Camera: ZWO ASI2600MM Pro
- Polar Alignment: QHYCCD Polemaster (Precise polar alignment)
- Laptop (For imaging, dither, auto guiding, plate solve)
Software- PHD2 (For Auto Guiding)
- QHYCCD PoleMaster Software (Polar Alignment)
- Astrophotography Tool (APT) (For Dither, plate solve, mount control)
- EQMOD (Remove Hand Controller and allow pulse guiding)
- Pegasus Astro Pocket Powerbox (Control the Pocket Powerbox Micro)
- Deep Sky Stacker (Stacking Frames)
- hotoshop (Processing)
- PixInsight (Processing)
- Microsoft Image Composite Editor (Processing, mosaic combine)
AcquisitionExposure Total:
88 hrs Panel One: 264 X 300s (
22 hrs)
- SII - 90 X 300s (7 hrs 30 mins)
- HA - 84 x 300s (7 hrs)
- OIII - 90 x 300s (7 hrs 30 mins)
Panel Two: 264 x 300s (
22 hrs)
- SII - 90 X 300s (7 hrs 30 mins)
- HA - 84 x 300s (7 hrs)
- OIII - 90 x 300s (7 hrs 30 mins)
Panel Three: 264 x 300s (
22 hrs)
- SII - 90 X 300s (7 hrs 30 mins)
- HA - 84 x 300s (7 hrs)
- OIII - 90 x 300s (7 hrs 30 mins)
Panel Four: 264 x 300s (
22 hrs)
- SII - 90 X 300s (7 hrs 30 mins)
- HA - 84 x 300s (7 hrs)
- OIII - 90 x 300s (7 hrs 30 mins)
Temperature: -5°C on all calibration frames as well as light frames
- 100 Flats per channel
- 20 Darks (Used Master Dark file)
- 20 Bias (Used Master Bias file)
- Gain: 100 (Unity Gain)
- Bin: 1x1
- Offset: Left Default
Processing in Photoshop and PixInsightStacked in DSS
Edited in Photoshop
RC-Astro GradientXTerminator
RC-Astro StarXTerminator in Photoshop
Drizzle 2x
Adjusted levels
Adjusted Curves
Selective Curves Adjustment
Color Correction
Blacks Correction
Vibrance Applied
Clarity Applied
Dehaze Applied
Light Sharpening Applied
Noise reduction on all channels
Luminance layer for highlights
Cropped
Morphological Transformation in PixInsight for Star reduction
Star correction
Create mosaic with Microsoft Image Composite Editor
Down size from 21165x12711 to 7408x4449
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