Celestial hemisphere:  Northern  ·  Constellation: Perseus (Per)  ·  Contains:  46 ksi Per  ·  Menkib  ·  Sh2-220  ·  The star ξPer
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Menkib over California Nebula, Anthony Quintile
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Menkib over California Nebula

Getting plate-solving status, please wait...
Menkib over California Nebula, Anthony Quintile
Powered byPixInsight

Menkib over California Nebula

Equipment

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Acquisition details

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Description

Second go with the Quattro.

Clouds interrupted my flow for over a week, but I was able to sneak a couple of long nights in before the Moon reestablished itself in my skies.

Several little galaxies are visible through the nebula, which gives some idea as to how diffuse these interstellar clouds are.

Comments

Revisions

  • Menkib over California Nebula, Anthony Quintile
    Original
  • Menkib over California Nebula, Anthony Quintile
    B
  • Menkib over California Nebula, Anthony Quintile
    C
  • Menkib over California Nebula, Anthony Quintile
    D
  • Menkib over California Nebula, Anthony Quintile
    E
  • Final
    Menkib over California Nebula, Anthony Quintile
    F

B

Description: I reduced Menkib's core a bit.

This was my second image with the reflector, so I have been learning what I think looks nice with the diffraction spikes.

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C

Description: Complete reprocess with new techniques.

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D

Description: MInor blem touch ups and adjustments.

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E

Description: Minor touch ups, cleaned up small galaxy, some star mask artifacts.

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F

Title: Complete reintegration and reprocess - 18 hours 38 minutes

Description: Day 72 of cloudy skies.... (+/-)

I am reaching pretty far back for this reprocess. This data was manually focused with a Bahtinov mask and was last reprocessed in my earliest days of using Pixinsight.

This is a bit more data because I am relying upon weighting, rather than culling, sub-exposures.

I wanted to apply Multi Scale Linear Transform as a contrast enhancement tool per Adam Block's advice in his Fundamentals course. I had watched this video a while ago and not chosen to use that approach in earnest until now. It is a really versatile tool and I could spend days tweaking setting at different scales to get different effects. It was especially helpful with the California Nebula since there are so many shades of red with this one-shot color data. MLT was really helpful in gaining contrast without making the nebula look too clumpy or crunchy I think.

One thing that I am excited about with my data is that I captured quite a few tiny galaxies in the field, especially several that shine through the nebula. I don't see this very much I think because this popular target is commonly shot with narrow band or light pollution filters so the glowing gasses in the nebula overwhelm the galaxies. I masked these little guys before using StarXTerminator to save them from being mid-tone reduced with the stars before being screened back in. Zoom in and pan around, there are some cool ones.

Uploaded: ...

Sky plot

Sky plot

Histogram

Menkib over California Nebula, Anthony Quintile