7th December 2023: added payment option Alipay to purchase Astro Pixel Processor from China, Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan, Korea, Japan and other countries where Alipay is used.
Here's what I did this winter season. This is a wide field view of Orion's belt and sword region captured in a single framing. The view includes the Flame nebula (NGC2024), Horsehead nebula (IC434), Running Man nebula (NGC1975), and Great Nebula of Orion (M42). All processing was done with APP 2.0.0-beta13. Data was captured in December 2022, January and February 2023 from a Bortle 6 zone pointed towards a Bortle 7 zone.
Telescope: RedCat71, Camera (monochrome): ZWO ASI6200MM.
Total Integration Time: 25.4 hrs; Blue Filter: 6.5 hrs; Green Filter: 4.0 hrs; Red Filter: 3.0 hrs; Ha Filter (7nm): 2.0 hrs; OIII filter (7nm): 6.3 hrs; SII Filter (7nm): 3.6 hrs. Ha mapped as luminance, OIII mapped 2/3 blue and 1/3 green, SII mapped red. RGB and OIII filters were used when the moon was below the horizon, Ha and SII used with half moon or less above the horizon.
Very nice, thanks for sharing! Maybe you can get a bit more dust from the background with a less dark sky?
I really like how the area around horsehead nebula comes out. Nice!
Vincent - I had those exact thoughts, but I was less satisfied with the overall results for the main subjects. Probably my developing skills need improving. In any case, what I want is a sky much with less light pollution to improve the contrast between the background and clouds of dust. I am about 2 years from retirement, and a few months ago I scouted several desert sites in the Western US which are Bortle 1 and 2. My plan is to rent a storage space for my scope and mount, then occasionally fly out, rent a car, and accomplish in a week with even better results what takes 3 months at my east coast location. I intend to come back to this subject under better skies.
ah - thank you!
