I finally got that rare perfect late summer night--clear, cloudless, and relatively cool, and I enjoyed it immensely. I went after NG6914, a humble reflection nebula peeking through inky dark nebulae, all nestled in Cygnus's rich bed of Ha. When the frames started rolling in, I could see the reflection nebula, but couldn't make out the Ha, so I thought I'd need several nights to produce a worthwhile image. But this turned out quite well! Believe it or not, this is under 4 hours of integration (113 x 120s frames) with nothing but a UVIR filter--no light pollution filter, no narrowband filter. (I was inspired by
lukomatico, who took on the same target under similarly light-polluted skies, also with just a UVIR cut filter ). This is almost certainly as pure a shot as I can ever expect to get in my Bortle 8 environs. Although I plan to capture more data for this one (which will have to wait until next year), I'm not sure I can process it better than this.
(Captured: Askar FRA500, AM5, ASI183MC Pro, Optolong UV/IR Cut Filter. Processed: AstroPixelProcessor, PixInsight, StarXterminator, NoiseXterminator, BlurXterminator, Blanshan/Cranfield Star Reduction Script)
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