Celestial hemisphere:  Northern  ·  Constellation: Cygnus (Cyg)  ·  Contains:  56 Cyg  ·  57 Cyg  ·  IC 5070  ·  LBN 343  ·  LBN 350  ·  LBN 353  ·  LBN 359  ·  LDN 933  ·  Pelican Nebula  ·  The star 56Cyg  ·  The star 57Cyg
IC 5070 - Pelican Nebula in SHO Palette, EasyQuest
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IC 5070 - Pelican Nebula in SHO Palette

IC 5070 - Pelican Nebula in SHO Palette, EasyQuest
Powered byPixInsight

IC 5070 - Pelican Nebula in SHO Palette

Equipment

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Acquisition details

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Description

Comments

For this project, back in summer season, I wanted a show piece for my first light of the William Optics FLT 132 version three. I decided on IC 5070 - Pelican Nebula in Cygnus. I decided on another SHO type image as I have seen on Google and Astrobin. I wanted a very clean image with very little denoising with AI so I went for broke and imaged as much as I can gather and discard the worst frames. The final results turn out as good I can get it! On the side note, this is my second processed version of the object as I posted my first version on reddit back in the summer. This one is processed differently so the results turned out better now. Enjoy~

Moon Phase, Location, and Date
  • Moon Phase For June: 75%, 92%, 98%, 96%, 90% (Moon during HA session as well as SII)
  • Moon Phase For July: 44%, 35%, 26%, 18% (Moon was setting for SII and OIII)
  • Murfreesboro, TN (Bortle 6)
  • June 20, 22, 23, 26, 27, 2021
  • July 02, 03, 04, 05, 2021

Equipment
  • Telescope/Lens: William optics Fluorostar 132 (910 mm at f/6.9)
  • Flattener/Reducer: William Optics Reducer Flattener 7A x0.8 (720mm at f/5.52)
  • Auto Focuser: ZWO EAF Electronic Automatic Focuser
  • Filter: Antlia 3.0nm Narrowband SII - 1.25" Mounted
  • Filter: Antlia 3.0nm Narrowband HA - 1.25" Mounted
  • Filter: Antlia 3.0nm Narrowband OIII - 1.25" Mounted
  • Filter Wheel: ZWO EFW (8 x 1.25″)
  • Mount: Sky-Watcher EQ6-R Pro (Used three 11 pound counterweights)
  • Tri-Pier: iOptron Tri-Pier with 8036-TK Adapter (Replaced base Skywatcher tripod with a more stable base)
  • Off-Axis Guider: ZWO OAG
  • Guider: ZWO ASI120MM-MINI
  • Dew Heater Controller: Pegasus Astro Pocket Powerbox Micro (Clean up Cables)
  • Dew Heater: AstroStrap Dew Heater for 6" Telescopes
  • Camera: ZWO ASI294MM Pro
  • Polar Alignment: QHYCCD Polemaster (Precise polar alignment)
  • Intel NUC (For imaging, dither, auto guiding, plate solve, Pegasus Astro Software Control) (Replaced laptop to clean up cables)

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)

Acquisition
  • Exposure per Filter: 32 hrs
  • SII - 96 x 300s (8 hrs)
  • HA - 96 X 300s (8 hrs)
  • OIII - 192 x 300s (16 hrs)
  • Temperature: -10°C on all calibration frames as well as light frames
  • 90 Flats for three filters
  • 30 Darks (Used Master Dark file)
  • 30 Bias (Used Master Bias file)
  • Gain: 120 (Unity Gain)
  • Bin: 2x2 (Full resolution if left 1x1 which is the IMX492 sensor.)
  • Offset: Left Default

Processing in Photoshop and PixInsight
  • Stacked in DSS
  • Edited in Photoshop and PixInsight
  • 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
  • Very little Noise Reduction
  • Cropped
  • Morphological Transformation in PixInsight for Star reduction
  • Linear Dodge to add stars back on
  • Star color correction

Comments

Sky plot

Sky plot

Histogram

IC 5070 - Pelican Nebula in SHO Palette, EasyQuest