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Celestial hemisphere:  Southern  ·  Constellation: Aquila (Aql)  ·  Contains:  19 Sgr)  ·  20 Sgr)  ·  34 Sgr)  ·  35 Oph)  ·  38 Sgr)  ·  50 Aql)  ·  53 Aql)  ·  55 Oph)  ·  60 Oph)  ·  8 Peg)  ·  Eagle Nebula  ·  Fom (ε Peg  ·  IC 4715  ·  Kaus Meridionalis  ·  M 16  ·  M 24  ·  Media (δ Sgr  ·  NGC 6611  ·  Os Pegasi  ·  Part of the constellation Aquarius (Aqr)  ·  Part of the constellation Capricornus (Cap)  ·  Part of the constellation Corona Austrina (CrA)  ·  Part of the constellation Hercules (Her)  ·  Part of the constellation Lyra (Lyr)  ·  Part of the constellation Ophiuchus (Oph)  ·  Part of the constellation Sagittarius (Sgr)  ·  Part of the constellation Serpens (Ser)  ·  Reda (γ Aql  ·  Sadira (σ Sgr  ·  Small Sgr Star Cloud  ·  And 16 more.
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Milky Way Composite September 2021 - Oak Island NC, JD
Milky Way Composite September 2021 - Oak Island NC
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Milky Way Composite September 2021 - Oak Island NC

Getting plate-solving status, please wait...
Milky Way Composite September 2021 - Oak Island NC, JD
Milky Way Composite September 2021 - Oak Island NC
Powered byPixInsight

Milky Way Composite September 2021 - Oak Island NC

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Description

While on vacation in September I shot a 4-panel mosaic of the Milky Way from Oak Island NC.  Generally I find that the conditions at the ocean are not conducive for imaging.  As a result, I did not bring any of my astronomical imaging equipment.  Suprisingly - one evening the skies were very clear and the breeze low, so conditions were pretty good for taking some images.  However, since I did not have any equipment to track, nor a cooled camera - I was limited to shooting short exposures with my full frame Canon DSLR (non-modified), and 24mm wide angle lens.  I was not expecting much of a result, but it turned out marginally ok - so I decided to post.

I processed Cosmetic Correction, Debayer, Star Registration and Image Integration on each of the 4 groups of subs using PixInsight.  Then I did ABE and Background Neutralization on each integration.  

Next I switched to PhotoShop, using the Photomerge - with the Reposition option to merge the 4 mosaic images into a single image.  Followed up with a round of Topaz Denoise noise reduction - and then saved out as a TIFF to send the mosaic back to PI.

In PixInsight I applied a round of Background Neutralization to the mosaic image to get rid of some gradients in the mosaic.  After that a couple of adjustments using Curves to boost the saturation and chromanance, as well as the contrast.  Then I saved as a JPEG (80% quality with progressive scanning).

There is some trailing in the stars due to the fact that I could not guide - but as long as you don't pixel-peep too much, it looks ok.  Enough to encourage me to try the same thing this summer at a dark site with a mount and tracking.

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Milky Way Composite September 2021 - Oak Island NC, JD

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Camera Lens Astrophotography
Cloudy Nights
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