2017 Refocusing
Aims for 2017 were to use New Moon dark sky opportunities at Perth Observatory or elsewhere to try some wide-field milky way shots as well as more faint nebulous objects.
I continued to have hopes, not progressed in the last 3 years, to try some mosaics and some HDR images in order to challenge me to improve my Photoshop skills and possibly even have a look at PixInsight, that is now an an entrenched Astrophotography software toolkit item. I did managed to experiment with EQMOSAIC for mosaic navigation and Microsoft Image Composite Editor (ICE) early in the year. No HDR and a Pixinsight trial expired before I could trial it :(
I continued my involvement with Perth Observatory's Volunteer Group (POVG) for Perth Observatory's public outreach programmes including coordinating the 4-person private 'star adoption' tours and involved in the Training of new volunteers with reference material and hands on training for equipment.
Unless stated otherwise, images are from my home location in Willetton, 12 Km south of the centre of Perth, Western Australia, though I used this far less now as it is unsuitable for faint objects using one-shot colour DSLR.
My favourite shots can also be found on AstroBin http://www.astrobin.com/users/scottastrophe
IC4628 Gum 56 Prawn Nebula in Scorpio between NGC6242 and NGC6231 Open Clusters - 25/2/2017 (Unmerged 3 panel Mosaic)
Imaged at Perth Observatory.
Just near the 'kink at the base of the tail' of Scorpius is a lovely run of objects starting the Zeta 1 and 2 Scorpius, the 'False Comet Cluster' , the 'Prawn Nebula' and another small open star cluster as we move right as shown.
EQmosaic of 3 panels with 33% overlap to attempt Mosaic stitch of the wider area
Individual panels stacked in DeepSkyStacker 3.3.4 Stacked 80% (4) of 6 Images ISO 800 @ 120 Sec, 54 DARK @ 120 Sec, 32 BIAS, 18 FLATS
Adobe Photoshop 2016 processed to show as an unmerged triptych. See also merged version with Photoshop Photomerge.
Telescope - PowerNewt 200mm f/4 with PowerNewt(ASA) f/2.84 Reducer/Coma Corrector, No filter, Baader BCF modified Canon 70D DSLR field 90' x 134' , Ambient 23C. EQMOD EQASCOM with Ascom 6 for mount control. Backyard EOS Pro 3.1.8 for Image acquisition. Mount - Skywatcher NEQ6 Pro. Guidescope - Orion ShortTube 80 with Starlight Xpress SuperStar (Mono) CCD Auto Guider and Stark Labs PHD auto guiding software.
CaldwellC76 NGC6231 False Comet ClusterGalactic NebulaGumGum56 IC4628 Prawn Nebula in ScorpioICIC4628 Gum56 Prawn Nebula in ScorpioNGCNGC6231 C76 False Comet ClusterNGC6242 Open ClusterOpen ClusterStarZeta ScorpiiMosaic
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Kim McAvoy
on January 27, 2017Great shots so far!