NGC 7000 and IC 5070 in SHO - Two-panel Mosaic (EasyQuest)

NGC 7000 and IC 5070 in SHO - Two-panel Mosaic

Comments

With the weather not letting up, I am reprocessing data from the summer season. This project was my first SHO, two-panel mosaic of NGC 7000 and IC 5070. This time I used my best subs to get the best possible image I can. I ended using a total of 18 hours versus my first time around, which was 24 hours. Couple with the change in processing skills and better data, I find my second version to be much better than the first version. Enjoy~

Moon Phase, Location, and Date

Moon Phase: 71%, 100%, 99%, 95%, 90%, 75%, 67% (Moon during all session with OIII being less moon)
Murfreesboro, TN (Bortle 6)
August 17,22,23,24,25,27,28 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: Antlia 36mm OIII 3nm Narrowband Filter - Unmounted
Mount: Sky-Watcher HEQ5 Pro (Rowan Belt Modification doe better tracking and autoguiding)
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 2" Dew Heater Strip - DN003
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)
Photoshop (Processing)
PixInsight (Processing)
Microsoft Image Composite Editor (Processing, mosaic combine)

Acquisition

Exposure Total: 18 hrs
Panel One - NGC 7000 - 108 X 300s (9 hrs)
SII - 36 X 300s (3 hrs)
HA - 36 x 300s (3 hrs)
OIII - 36 x 300s (3 hrs)
Panel Two - IC 5070 - 108 x 300s (9 hrs)
SII - 36 X 300s (3 hrs)
HA - 36 x 300s (3 hrs)
OIII - 36 x 300s (3 hrs)
Temperature: -5°C on all calibration frames as well as light frames
40 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 PixInsight

Stacked in DSS
Edited in Photoshop and PixInsight
Create mosaic with Microsoft Image Composite Editor
Manual Gradient Adjustment
Selective Curves Adjustment
Color Correction
Blacks Correction
Light sharpening Applied
RC-Astro GradientXTerminator
RC-Astro StarXTerminator in Photoshop
Adjusted levels
Adjusted Curves
Selective Curves Adjustment
Saturation Balance
Some Noise Reduction
Cropped
Morphological Transformation in PixInsight for Star reduction
Linear Dodge to add stars back on
Star color correction

	Distinct awarded users	Total awarded images
Image of the day
Top picks
Top pick nominations

	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

	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

Submitted The date and time when you submitted this image for IOTD/TP consideration.	...
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Status	Advanced success
Started	...
Astrometry.net job	5353885
PixInsight job	AGS0JVDPXJR3KLAX88IFERI54MB4S8DF
PixInsight queue size	n/a
PixInsight stage	TASK_LOG

RA (center)	20h54m52s.44
RA (top/left)	21h04m38s.87
RA (top/right)	20h45m09s.58
RA (bottom/right)	20h45m28s.27
RA (bottom/left)	21h03m59s.49

Dec (center)	+44°20′08″.9
Dec (top/left)	+45°47′24″.8
Dec (top/right)	+45°50′44″.2
Dec (bottom/right)	+42°48′48″.10
Dec (bottom/left)	+42°47′28″.9

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