Here we have a try at this iconic summer target, the Eastern Veil Nebula, NGC6992 (also contains NGC6995 and IC1340 among others) located in Cygnus.  This is the HI shell of the Eastern portion of the larger Cygnus Loop supernova remnant. 

I did this with a 90mm StellarVue refractor with the Starizona APEX-ED 0.65x reducer.  I am thinking this set-up might be perfect for me for the larger targets like this.  With the focal reducer, I'm at f/4.5 which yields a 3.3°x2.2° FOV with a crop C sensor.  So pretty fast and fairly wide-field and a nice match with the 8" Newt and the C9.25.  I was very impressed with the focal reducer but I have to fine tune the backfocus.  As this was shot, I did have poor stars along the periphery of the frame and I had to crop it quite aggressively.  But as with all things, at least for me, there is always a need to adjust whenever I try something new.  I am looking forward to using this more as I go forward.  

I also debuted a new Oiii filter, the Antlia 3nm and was really blown away by the difference compared to other Oiii filters I've used.  I was holding my breath a little thinking I should have just bitten the bullet and purchased a Chroma or an Astrodon.  But so far, this seems to have killed the halo/reflection issue.  I do need to try this on a brighter star to be sure but so far, so good.  The Oiii master was very nice compared to what I've done in the past.

Clearly, this image could benefit with more Oiii integration but this monsoon in Arizona is the cloudiest I can remember.  As a fellow Arizona imager mentioned to me, the moon is on the wax and there appears to be no breaks in the cloudy weather forecast.  Moreover, I am reconfiguring my equipment and with both of these things going on, I see no timetable to add more.  So I decided to see what I could do with what I had. 

For the processing, I did this one three ways; the Frank Breslawski "Crazy Formula", the Steve Cannistra synthetic green NB combination method, and a straight HOO version.  For both the Cannistra and the HOO versions, I did use the stars produced by the Crazy Formula as I thought they were actually a pretty good approximation of RGB stars.  Sure, RGB stars would have been better but still, we are having very little opportunity here in Arizona as the monsoon continues.  Frustrating for certain but we do need the rain.

I do hope you like this one and of course, comments and criticism always welcome...  Clear Skies and good health!