Celestial hemisphere:  Southern  ·  Constellation: Ophiuchus (Oph)  ·  Contains:  1 b Sco  ·  10 ome02 Sco  ·  10.98  ·  12 c01 Sco  ·  12.86  ·  12.90  ·  13 c02 Sco  ·  13.72  ·  13.75  ·  13.76  ·  13.85  ·  14 nu. Sco  ·  14.03  ·  14.51  ·  14.61  ·  175 Andromache  ·  18 Oph  ·  19 omi Sco  ·  2 A Sco  ·  20 sig Sco  ·  21 alf Sco  ·  211 Isolda  ·  22 i Sco  ·  224 Oceana  ·  23 tau Sco  ·  24 Oph  ·  24 Sco  ·  25 Sco  ·  26 Oph  ·  29 Oph  ·  And 194 more.
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Antares, Mr. Ashley McGlone
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Antares

Getting plate-solving status, please wait...
Antares, Mr. Ashley McGlone
Powered byPixInsight

Antares

Equipment

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Acquisition details

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Description

2020-03-26

TARGET

Antares

Messier 4

Scorpius

Rho Ophiuchi Nebula

GOAL

Can I get the red/yellow/blue colors of these nebulas with my current gear configuration?

Can I see the dark nebula fingers reaching over from the Milky Way?

Can I fit the Lagoon Nebula into the shot? No.

CONDITIONS

Thursday morning 4AM

46 degrees F

No moon

THE CHALLENGE THIS TIME

ClearOutside app forecast changed between going to bed and getting up at 3:30AM (about 5 hours).

Clouds partly at the beginning.

Then DEW at the end.

Humid Spring morning.

All my gear had moisture on it when finished.

I knew the battle with dew was coming.

We are now there.

Used my USB fan back in the office to dry out the camera with the lens cap off when I returned.

GEAR

Canon 6D stock

Astronomik CLS filter with custom white balance in camera

SkyWatcher Star Adventurer tracker

ProMaster SC430 tripod

Canon 70-300mm EF @ 80mm

800ISO

f/4.0

42 x 90” subs = 1hr 3min

Lights/Darks/Bias/Flats/DarkFlats

OBSERVATIONS

I was able to get up to 2:30 on the exposure time, but some stars started to look egg-shaped.

Same at 2:00 exposure, but really not bad when you zoom out.

Went back to 1:30 exposures as my usual sweet spot.

The histogram on the pictures with the filter looked pretty good using the custom white balance.

Mostly aligned RGB around 1/3 from the left.

Without the custom white balance the red is all but gone, leaving the blue/green hue to everything.

Raw single takes look descent for star color of Antares and Messier 4.

I can see Scorpius OK from my back yard, but the three neighboring security lights on all sides are just two much. The darkness behind the church is much better, despite the night lights on the front of the church and from Tall Timbers.

PROCESSING

Use the Raw/FITS setting of “Use camera white balance” due to the CLS filter with custom white balance.

Processed in Astro Pixel Processor instead of DSS. Final levels and curves in GIMP.

Comments

Sky plot

Sky plot

Histogram

Antares, Mr. Ashley McGlone