NGC 7380 - with/out the magic (Tom Gray)

NGC 7380 - with/out the magic

My first attempt at NGC 7380 has plenty of wizardry, but not much magic. Imaging during short summer nights at this latitude 53N is challenging with only two hours of 'nautical' darkness. I used my new Baader 7nm Ha filter to capture exposures over two nights. Following calibration and stacking in ASTAP (60% quality), this image comprises just under two hours data, which was processed in Startools with a standard workflow, and aggressive noise reduction.

At last we are enjoying a run of clear nights in UK, and hot days, and making the most of these. Those in SW Germany and Belgium are experiencing horrendous weather, and we are thinking of those affected by the appalling floods and loss of life; there is no magical solution to the consequences of climate change which has been ravaging many parts of the world this summer.

I did try and collect some OIII data (8.5nm) last night, in the hope of producing my first SHO image, but very noisy and I am abandoning the project until we get longer darker nights in the autumn.

B

Description: An HO version comprising 14x300s Ha (7nm) and 13 x 300s OIII (8.5nm). Re-processed in Startools using (H)HO composite (Oct 2021). I've reduced noise aggressively, losing some fine detail, but also some of the walking noise that plagued this image. On my Astrobin plan, I'm limited to 6 revisions, so have replaced this with my latest effort. I think I like this the most because it shows off the OIII to better effect . The mouse-over includes the stretched and processed Ha data. Comments and feedback always welcome.

Uploaded: ...

C

Description: Massive thanks to @stefano Ciapetti for helping me with alternative strategies for noise reduction. The attached image stacked in Astroart, curves in photoshop and noise reduction in Gimp is so much better than my attempt in Startools. Aside from Stefano’s expertise, and my novice understanding of Startools and processing in general, I expect our bright skies at this time of year, and also some vibration from the fan on my homemade TEC cooler may be responsible for the excessive noise and blurring of the detail. I’m posting this as a thank you to Stefano and note to self that I must continue to persevere in improving my skills and to try different strategies.

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D

Description: Many thanks to @Lee for processing this version in APP and PixInsight. Again, a much smoother image with more detail in the emissions and significantly reduced noise.

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F

Description: Just when I thought I'd finished my final version - another offering HHOO, just shy of 3 hours data mapped Ha to L/R and OIII to G/B and colour processed as (L)RGB. I think it works, but much more OIII required to bring out the beautiful blue hues. I’ve even added a few star spikes - perhaps a little magic is returning - wizard.

Uploaded: ...

G

Description: In an attempt to remove the excessive walking noise in my data, I have drizzled the image in Nebulosity v3 and then applied significant reduction to the background and applied excessive noise reduction in Startools 1.8 alpha. Clearly dithering is the way to go during image capture, but this shows that post processing can give cosmetic improvements. I've stretched this further and lightened the background to bring out the detail (thanks Lee).

Uploaded: ...

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Status	Advanced success
Started	...
Astrometry.net job	4752386
PixInsight job	S0FTAVV1YDB04R84IQIC6FPUFMOH9TNR
PixInsight queue size	n/a
PixInsight stage	TASK_LOG

RA (center)	22h47m47s.49
RA (top/left)	22h50m10s.20
RA (top/right)	22h45m25s.87
RA (bottom/right)	22h45m26s.79
RA (bottom/left)	22h50m07s.32

Dec (center)	+58°04′52″.3
Dec (top/left)	+58°18′47″.0
Dec (top/right)	+58°18′55″.9
Dec (bottom/right)	+57°50′48″.5
Dec (bottom/left)	+57°50′38″.5

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