This image was a combination of my data with that of Bostronomy - www.astrobin.com/users/Bostronomy/ to test and see if we could get the options in Astro Pixel Processor to work to try and stack images of different focal lengths and optics.

61 x 420s -

Meade Series 6000 80mm Triplet APO Refractor

Canon EOS Ra

Ho-Tech Field Flattener

Optolong L-eNhanced Filter

Full calibration frames - dark, flat, dark flat and bias frames. Data taken over 3 nights.

50 x 300s

Explore Scientific ED102

ZWO ASI 2600mc-Pro

Ho-Tech Field Flattener

Optolong L-eNhanced filter

No calibration frames...

I stacked the images in Astro Pixel Processor, letting it know that the images were shot at different focal lengths and with different optics. I used different LNC and Multi-band blending settings to see what ended up the best (imo) - This image was done with a LNC setting of 2nd degree and 6 iterations. From there, I let APP do a stretch, normalize the background and I did a light pollution removal. From there I took it in to Photoshop. In photoshop, GradientXTerminator was used on its lowest settings with no background calibration. Starnet was not used. Astronomy Tools Actions used to remove noise (Deep Space Noise Removal) and to make stars smaller. No sharpening. Most processing was done in Camera RAW filter to set Vibrance, Saturation. The black, white, shadow and highlight where also used, as well as some minor contrast and exposure changes. Color mixer (in RAW Filter) was used to lightly boost red and blue saturation.

We had not planned on doing this and in fact did it on a whim just to see if we could even get it to work. We plan on making a better plan next go around (and for everyone to have calibration frames). Saying this, we are happy with the results that we got and are happy to have figured out how to do this process. We do plan on doing another collaboration, this time with a bit more planning.

If anyone has any tips on stacking and processing images like this, please let me know!