As clear nights have been few and far between in these parts this fall, I decided to have a go at a processing contest organized by
SkyNews Magazine here in Canada.
The data was captured by the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada’s robotic telescope, located near Auberry, California, a 16-inch, f/8.9 RCOS with a SBIG STX-16803 camera on a Paramount ME mount. This particularly dataset was captured with SBIG LRGB filters, and I opted to download and stack the subs myself. I wanted to see if I could improve on stacked image by selecting the best of the subs, so I chose 7 subs for each of RGB (600s each) and 13 for luminance (900s each) for a total of 6 hours 45 minutes integration time.
I processed the image twice - once for nebulosity, generating a starless version in StarNet++, and once again stretching only in Photoshop to try and prevent the stars from blowing out. I used the starless version to very slightly bring out the nebulosity in the second processed image. I worked on this on and off again for about a week, even starting from scratch half-way through. It was fun to work with a very different focal length for a change, and it was my first attempt at processing LRGB data.
I was surprised to learn today that SkyNews magazine selected this image as the
winning entry to their contest. Wow! Thanks a million to
@wsg and others who have provided feedback and constructive criticism this past year as I wet my toes in this exciting hobby! I'm honoured and grateful.
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