This was a struggle. I had a little less than 2 hours of data so the integration master has a large dark ring in the background containing a brighter background area. Getting the background smooth took a lot of fooling around. It became acceptable after several iterations of DBE and then iterating on BN until l had enough extra zeros in the target background field.
I normally wouldn't process this image until I'd collected a lot more data. But I'm contemplating upgrading my refractor and wanted to compare this image taken with my AT80ED (doublet) with similar images taken with an AT115EDT (triplet) to see if I could detect extra detail in the AT115EDT images. I found an excellent image uploaded by
Shannon Calvert that has about the same integration time.
My verdict: Shannon's AT115EDT image has more detail, but it's not a straightforward assessment. Her Bortle scale is 5; mine is 7. Shannon did not list a light pollution filter and used a DSLR; I used an Optolong l-enhance dual band pass filter and a ZWO ASI553MC OSC camera. I'm not sure about the impact of the DSRL vs the OSC camera other than our pixel scales are different, but I am pretty sure that using a light pollution filter with a OSC cuts down on detail - especially with short integration times.
If you have thoughts, I'd love to hear them!
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