EarthSky Community Photos

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James Carroll
Conway Arkansas United States
09/14/2022
10:00 pm

Equipment Details:

Imaging Telescopes Or Lenses
Stellarvue SVX130T-R
Imaging Cameras
ZWO ASI1600MM Pro
Mounts
Sky-Watcher EQ6-R Pro
Filters
Antlia 3nm Narrowband H-alpha · Antlia 3nm Narrowband Oxygen III 1.25" · Antlia 3nm Narrowband Sulfur II 1.25" · Antlia Blue 1.25" · Antlia Green 1.25" · Antlia Red 1.25"
Accessories
Optec ThirdLynx QuickSync FTX40 · Stellarvue SFFR.72-130-48 · ZWO EFW 8 x 1.25″ / 31mm
Software
Adobe Photoshop · Open PHD Guiding Project PHD2 · Pleiades Astrophoto PixInsight · Stefan Berg Nighttime Imaging 'N' Astronomy (N.I.N.A. / NINA)
Guiding Telescopes Or Lenses
William Optics UniGuide 50
Guiding Cameras
ZWO ASI290MM Mini

Post-processing Details:

This image consists of parts of 2 different sets of data. SHO data for the nebulosity and RGB data for the stars. Both images were processed with flat's, darks. The calibrated images were then stacked in pixinisight, and drizzle 2x was applied. I then stretched the SHO and RGB images seperately. After the images were stretched I subtracted out the stars from the SHO image. Some slight adjustments to color hue and saturation were done to the SHO image.

I then subtracted the stars of the RGB into a mask using Starnet V2 in pixinisight. These were then added to the SHO image to get a mostly complete image.

I then saved the image as a .tiff file and opened in photoshop. Some slight noise reduction and star reduction was done to better highlight the nebulosity.

Finally the watermark was applied

Image Details:

This is LDN1121 part of the larger Elephant trunk nebula
This is the most complex image I have attempted to take yet. This is a blend of 2 images see processing for more details. I have always loved the depth in narrowband deep sky images. These images show the complexity of our own milky way. To think each bright dot represents a star the same size or bigger than our own sun is awe inspiring.
This image is a total of 28hours and 45 minutes worth of exposures captured over the entire month of August and into September completed on September 13th and processed on the 14th. Total time making this image was over 35 hours.