Orpington Astronomical Society

Astronomy => Astrophotography => Topic started by: The Thing on Aug 19, 2022, 08:57:29

Title: Cygnus Wall below the 'Gulf of Mexico' in the North American Nebula
Post by: The Thing on Aug 19, 2022, 08:57:29
Another one using my old Meade LX90 8" UHTC circa 2006. Stars are pants, this scope never produced good stars, so don't look at them. look at the dust! All about the North America Nebula on WikiPedia. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_America_Nebula)

The dual-band lEnhance filter has produced a great result showing the different elements of the nebula, red hydrogen (hydrogen alpha wavelength), bluey green oxygen (Oiii + H beta) and the dust which forms the 'Gulf of Mexico'. I did loads to the stars to try to fix them but to no avail :(

This is processed from 99 x 120s lights, 10 darks, 10 flats, 10 darkflats. Gain 1600 (unity), Offset 30, CMOS temp -5c.

Telescope aperture and focal ratio:   LX90 8" UHTC (f10 fl2000mm), Baader Alan Gee Telecompressor II (f6.3, fl 1386mm)
Camera and filters used:           QHY294PROC, Optolong l-Enhance dual band (Ha, Oiii+Hb)
Processing applied:                   Pixinsight, Affinity Photo


(http://gallery.orpington-astronomy.org.uk/albums/userpics/10050/normal_Cygnus_Wall_3h18m_PCC_SCNR_ezDcn_ezDn_Asinhx2_ezStRed.jpg) (http://gallery.orpington-astronomy.org.uk/albums/userpics/10050/Cygnus_Wall_3h18m_PCC_SCNR_ezDcn_ezDn_Asinhx2_ezStRed.jpg)

Context picture borrowed from Astrobin. The target is middle bottom.
(https://cdn.astrobin.com/solutions/images/122946/2022/ebc6fa33-978a-43ae-b860-cee90dece9f4-1660715667.jpeg)
Title: Re: Cygnus Wall below the 'Gulf of Mexico' in the North American Nebula
Post by: Carole on Aug 19, 2022, 11:47:05
Not a bad result Duncan (stars excepted as you rightly say).  Those dual-band lEnhance filters do a good job.

Constructive thoughts: 
a) The Oiii looks a bit green to me maybe a tweak into the blue as is more traditional.
b) Have you got another image of the NAN with decent stars, maybe you might try superimposing the stars onto this image as that would be no different to doing a narrowband image and superimposing RGB stars onto a NB image which many people do.  I have tried this myself in the past.  Having said that, it is not as easy as it sounds. 

Carole
Title: Re: Cygnus Wall below the 'Gulf of Mexico' in the North American Nebula
Post by: The Thing on Aug 22, 2022, 16:16:24
Processed the same as my previous version except no SCNR (replaces excessive green data) in PixInsight. There is also a lot less data but I got a much smoother stack. Not as pretty a picture and much more conventional.

Reducer flattener spacing was increased in line with new information discovered on Teleskop Expresses website - about time too! Guiding was changed to Off Axis Guider from 190mm guidescope resulting in tighter stars.

New data - 35x 120s 1h 10m. Gain 1600, Offset 30, Temp -5c.

(http://gallery.orpington-astronomy.org.uk/albums/userpics/10050/normal_Cygnus_Wall_35x120s_PCC_ezDecon_ezDn_ezSS_ezStaRed.jpg) (http://gallery.orpington-astronomy.org.uk/albums/userpics/10050/Cygnus_Wall_35x120s_PCC_ezDecon_ezDn_ezSS_ezStaRed.jpg)