lefty7283

Great end to the season! Also holy fuck

Thanks!

[email protected]

One I used to run, /r/astrophotogramemes, is still private. Had about 1k subs before the protests. On /r/astrophotography we basically left it unmoderated for almost a year before new mods came in

Another image from my end of the year processing spree! I'm not entirely sure where the lion is in here, but it sure looks neat. I last shot this back in 2021, and overall I think this new go at it is a lot better color and noise wise. The region in the top left of the frame is incredibly rich in Oiii gas, which gives it a very distinct color difference from the rest of the nebula (no dynamic narrowband combination needed!). Captured over a shitload of nights from Sep-Nov, 2024 from a bortle 9 zone.

Places where I host my other images:

Flickr | Instagram

Equipment:

• TPO 6" F/4 Imaging Newtonian

• Orion Sirius EQ-G

• ZWO ASI1600MM-Pro

• Skywatcher Quattro Coma Corrector

• ZWO EFW 8x1.25"/31mm

• Astronomik LRGB+CLS Filters- 31mm

• Astrodon 31mm Ha 5nm, Oiii 3nm, Sii 5nm

• Agena 50mm Deluxe Straight-Through Guide Scope

• ZWO ASI-290mc for guiding

• Moonlite Autofocuser

Acquisition: 65 hours 45 minutes (Camera at -15°C), unity gain

• Ha - 111x600"

• Oiii - 141x600"

• Sii - 130x600"

• R - 42x60"

• G - 42x60"

• B - 41x60"

• Darks- 30

• Flats- 30 per filter

Capture Software:

• Captured using N.I.N.A. and PHD2 for guiding and dithering.

PixInsight Preprocessing:

• BatchPreProcessing

• StarAlignment

• Blink

• ImageIntegration per channel

• DrizzleIntegration (2x, Var β=1.5)

• Dynamic Crop

• DynamicBackgroundExtraction

  duplicated each image and removed stars via StarXterminator. Ran DBE with a shitload of points to generate background model. model subtracted from original pic using the following PixelMath (math courtesy of /u/jimmythechicken1)

  $T * med(model) / model

Narrowband Linear:

• Blur and NoiseXTerminator

• StarXterminator to completely remove stars from each Ha, Oiii, and Sii image

• HistogramTransformation to stretch nonlinear

Broadband/RGB stars linear:

• ChannelCombination to make color image from R G and B stacks

• StarX (correct only)

• SpectrophotometricColorCalibration (narrowband working mode)

• HSV repair

• StarXterminator to extract a stars-only image (to be used going forward)

• arcsinhstretch

• scnr > invert > scnr > invert to remove greens and magentas

• HistogramTransformation

• (combined with starless pic later on)

Nonlinear:

• PixelMath to combine monochrome Ha Oiii and Sii images into a color image with SHO --> RGB, respectively

• HistogramTransformation to adjust red green and blue color channels separately (basically stretched R and B, and toned the G down some)

• Slight SCNR green

• NoiseXterminator

• LRGBCombination using stretched extracted L channel as luminance

• Shitloads of Curve Transformations to adjust lightness, hues, contrast, saturation, etc

• LocalHistogramEqualization (two rounds of this. one at kernel radius 16 for small scale detail, and one at 500 for large structures)

• More curves

• Pixelmath to add in the stretched RGB stars only image from earlier

  This basically re-linearizes the two images, adds them together, and then stretches them back to before. More info on it here)

  mtf(.005,

  mtf(.995,Stars)+

  mtf(.995,Starless))

• guess what more curves

• DynamicCrop again (I fucked up the framing a lil and had a lot of empty space towards the bottom)

• Resample to 75%

• Annotation

I decided to do a deep dive into just the core of the Heart Nebula itself. Mellotte 15 is the name for the bright structure in the image, but the rest of the nebula itself is pretty extensive, and features the nearby soul nebula. IMO the uncropped heart nebula looks more like a chode with huge balls, but I can kinda see where it got it's heart name.... Captured over 8 nights in November 2024 from a bortle 9 zone.

Places where I host my other images:

Flickr | Instagram

Equipment:

• TPO 6" F/4 Imaging Newtonian

• Orion Sirius EQ-G

• ZWO ASI1600MM-Pro

• Skywatcher Quattro Coma Corrector

• ZWO EFW 8x1.25"/31mm

• Astronomik LRGB+CLS Filters- 31mm

• Astrodon 31mm Ha 5nm, Oiii 3nm, Sii 5nm

• Agena 50mm Deluxe Straight-Through Guide Scope

• ZWO ASI-290mc for guiding

• Moonlite Autofocuser

Acquisition: 29 hours 50 minutes (Camera at -15°C), unity gain

• Ha - 58x600"

• Oiii - 62x600"

• Sii - 59x600"

• Darks- 30

• Flats- 30 per filter

Capture Software:

• Captured using N.I.N.A. and PHD2 for guiding and dithering.

PixInsight Preprocessing:

• BatchPreProcessing

• StarAlignment

• Blink

• ImageIntegration per channel

• DrizzleIntegration (2x, Var β=1.5)

• Dynamic Crop

• DynamicBackgroundExtraction

  duplicated each image and removed stars via StarXterminator. Ran DBE with a shitload of points to generate background model. model subtracted from original pic using the following PixelMath (math courtesy of /u/jimmythechicken1)

  $T * med(model) / model

Narrowband Linear:

• Blur and NoiseXTerminator

• made SHO image and extracted stars to be processed separately

• StarXterminator to completely remove stars from each Ha, Oiii, and Sii image

• HistogramTransformation to stretch nonlinear

Stars only image:

• SpectrophotometricColorCalibration (narrowband working mode)

• HSV repair

• arcsinhstretch

• scnr > invert > scnr > invert to remove greens and magentas

• HistogramTransformation

• (combined with starless pic later on)

Nonlinear:

• PixelMath to combine monochrome Ha Oiii and Sii images into a color image with SHO --> RGB, respectively

• HistogramTransformation to adjust red green and blue color channels separately (basically stretched R and B, and toned the G down some)

• LRGBCombination using stretched Ha as luminance

• DeepSNR

• Shitloads of Curve Transformations to adjust lightness, hues, contrast, saturation, etc

• Clone stamp to remove one weird small blue speck near the core of the nebula (might've just clipped the colors a little too much in the histogram adjustments above^)

• LocalHistogramEqualization (two rounds of this. one at kernel radius 16 for small scale detail, and one at 500 for large structures)

• More curves

• DarkStructureEnhance script (0.15 amount)

• Pixelmath to add in the stretched RGB stars only image from earlier

  This basically re-linearizes the two images, adds them together, and then stretches them back to before. More info on it here)

  mtf(.005,

  mtf(.995,Stars)+

  mtf(.995,Starless))

• some more curves

• One more round of noiseX for small scale noise reduction

• DynamicCrop in on just the core region

• Resample to 80%

• Annotation

I decided to do a deep dive into just the core of the Heart Nebula itself. Mellotte 15 is the name for the bright structure in the image, but the rest of the nebula itself is pretty extensive, and features the nearby soul nebula. IMO the uncropped heart nebula looks more like a chode with huge balls, but I can kinda see where it got it's heart name.... Captured over 8 nights in November 2024 from a bortle 9 zone.

Places where I host my other images:

Flickr | Instagram

Equipment:

• TPO 6" F/4 Imaging Newtonian

• Orion Sirius EQ-G

• ZWO ASI1600MM-Pro

• Skywatcher Quattro Coma Corrector

• ZWO EFW 8x1.25"/31mm

• Astronomik LRGB+CLS Filters- 31mm

• Astrodon 31mm Ha 5nm, Oiii 3nm, Sii 5nm

• Agena 50mm Deluxe Straight-Through Guide Scope

• ZWO ASI-290mc for guiding

• Moonlite Autofocuser

Acquisition: 29 hours 50 minutes (Camera at -15°C), unity gain

• Ha - 58x600"

• Oiii - 62x600"

• Sii - 59x600"

• Darks- 30

• Flats- 30 per filter

Capture Software:

• Captured using N.I.N.A. and PHD2 for guiding and dithering.

PixInsight Preprocessing:

• BatchPreProcessing

• StarAlignment

• Blink

• ImageIntegration per channel

• DrizzleIntegration (2x, Var β=1.5)

• Dynamic Crop

• DynamicBackgroundExtraction

  duplicated each image and removed stars via StarXterminator. Ran DBE with a shitload of points to generate background model. model subtracted from original pic using the following PixelMath (math courtesy of /u/jimmythechicken1)

  $T * med(model) / model

Narrowband Linear:

• Blur and NoiseXTerminator

• made SHO image and extracted stars to be processed separately

• StarXterminator to completely remove stars from each Ha, Oiii, and Sii image

• HistogramTransformation to stretch nonlinear

Stars only image:

• SpectrophotometricColorCalibration (narrowband working mode)

• HSV repair

• arcsinhstretch

• scnr > invert > scnr > invert to remove greens and magentas

• HistogramTransformation

• (combined with starless pic later on)

Nonlinear:

• PixelMath to combine monochrome Ha Oiii and Sii images into a color image with SHO --> RGB, respectively

• HistogramTransformation to adjust red green and blue color channels separately (basically stretched R and B, and toned the G down some)

• LRGBCombination using stretched Ha as luminance

• DeepSNR

• Shitloads of Curve Transformations to adjust lightness, hues, contrast, saturation, etc

• Clone stamp to remove one weird small blue speck near the core of the nebula (might've just clipped the colors a little too much in the histogram adjustments above^)

• LocalHistogramEqualization (two rounds of this. one at kernel radius 16 for small scale detail, and one at 500 for large structures)

• More curves

• DarkStructureEnhance script (0.15 amount)

• Pixelmath to add in the stretched RGB stars only image from earlier

  This basically re-linearizes the two images, adds them together, and then stretches them back to before. More info on it here)

  mtf(.005,

  mtf(.995,Stars)+

  mtf(.995,Starless))

• some more curves

• One more round of noiseX for small scale noise reduction

• DynamicCrop in on just the core region

• Resample to 80%

• Annotation

Yea I fuck**g hate it

Still shooting in Cygnus...

Though I think IC1318/γ Cyg can be used to describe most of the nebulosity around the star Sadr, stellarium has it directly over the bright nebula in this image. Overall I'd consider it an improvement over my last go at it back in 2020. Captured over 12 nights from Oct-Nov 2024 from a bortle 9 zone.

Places where I host my other images:

Flickr | Instagram

Equipment:

• TPO 6" F/4 Imaging Newtonian

• Orion Sirius EQ-G

• ZWO ASI1600MM-Pro

• Skywatcher Quattro Coma Corrector

• ZWO EFW 8x1.25"/31mm

• Astronomik LRGB+CLS Filters- 31mm

• Astrodon 31mm Ha 5nm, Oiii 3nm, Sii 5nm

• Agena 50mm Deluxe Straight-Through Guide Scope

• ZWO ASI-290mc for guiding

• Moonlite Autofocuser

Acquisition: 25 hours 40 minutes (Camera at -15°C), unity gain

• Ha - 50x600"

• Oiii - 57x600"

• Sii - 47x600"

• Darks- 30

• Flats- 30 per filter

Capture Software:

• Captured using N.I.N.A. and PHD2 for guiding and dithering.

PixInsight Preprocessing:

• BatchPreProcessing

• StarAlignment

• Blink

• ImageIntegration per channel

• DrizzleIntegration (2x, Var β=1.5)

• Dynamic Crop

• DynamicBackgroundExtraction

  duplicated each image and removed stars via StarXterminator. Ran DBE with a shitload of points to generate background model. model subtracted from original pic using the following PixelMath (math courtesy of /u/jimmythechicken1)

  $T * med(model) / model

Narrowband Linear:

• Blur and NoiseXTerminator

• made SHO image and extracted stars to be processed separately

• StarXterminator to completely remove stars from each Ha, Oiii, and Sii image

• HistogramTransformation to stretch nonlinear

Stars only image:

• SpectrophotometricColorCalibration (narrowband working mode)

• HSV repair

• arcsinhstretch

• scnr > invert > scnr > invert to remove greens and magentas

• HistogramTransformation

• (combined with starless pic later on)

Nonlinear:

• PixelMath to combine monochrome Ha Oiii and Sii images into a color image with SHO --> RGB, respectively

• slight SCNR (bright areas protected with Ha mask)

• Some curves to adjust colors

• LRGBCombination using stretched Ha as luminance (accidentally left that Ha mask on from earlier so it applied more to the bright parts, and honestly turned out nicer than applying the Ha luminance to the entire image)

• Shitloads of Curve Transformations to adjust lightness, hues, contrast, saturation, etc

• DeepSNR

• MLT for small scale chrominance noise reduction

• DarkStructureEnhance script

• LocalHistogramEqualization

• more curves

• invert > slight scnr (masked) > invert to remove some background magentas

• even more curves

• Pixelmath to add in the stretched RGB stars only image from earlier

  This basically re-linearizes the two images, adds them together, and then stretches them back to before. More info on it here)

  mtf(.005,

  mtf(.995,Stars)+

  mtf(.995,Starless))

• Resample to 65%

• Annotation

Still shooting in Cygnus...

Though I think IC1318/γ Cyg can be used to describe most of the nebulosity around the star Sadr, stellarium has it directly over the bright nebula in this image. Overall I'd consider it an improvement over my last go at it back in 2020. Captured over 12 nights from Oct-Nov 2024 from a bortle 9 zone.

Places where I host my other images:

Flickr | Instagram

Equipment:

• TPO 6" F/4 Imaging Newtonian

• Orion Sirius EQ-G

• ZWO ASI1600MM-Pro

• Skywatcher Quattro Coma Corrector

• ZWO EFW 8x1.25"/31mm

• Astronomik LRGB+CLS Filters- 31mm

• Astrodon 31mm Ha 5nm, Oiii 3nm, Sii 5nm

• Agena 50mm Deluxe Straight-Through Guide Scope

• ZWO ASI-290mc for guiding

• Moonlite Autofocuser

Acquisition: 25 hours 40 minutes (Camera at -15°C), unity gain

• Ha - 50x600"

• Oiii - 57x600"

• Sii - 47x600"

• Darks- 30

• Flats- 30 per filter

Capture Software:

• Captured using N.I.N.A. and PHD2 for guiding and dithering.

PixInsight Preprocessing:

• BatchPreProcessing

• StarAlignment

• Blink

• ImageIntegration per channel

• DrizzleIntegration (2x, Var β=1.5)

• Dynamic Crop

• DynamicBackgroundExtraction

  duplicated each image and removed stars via StarXterminator. Ran DBE with a shitload of points to generate background model. model subtracted from original pic using the following PixelMath (math courtesy of /u/jimmythechicken1)

  $T * med(model) / model

Narrowband Linear:

• Blur and NoiseXTerminator

• made SHO image and extracted stars to be processed separately

• StarXterminator to completely remove stars from each Ha, Oiii, and Sii image

• HistogramTransformation to stretch nonlinear

Stars only image:

• SpectrophotometricColorCalibration (narrowband working mode)

• HSV repair

• arcsinhstretch

• scnr > invert > scnr > invert to remove greens and magentas

• HistogramTransformation

• (combined with starless pic later on)

Nonlinear:

• PixelMath to combine monochrome Ha Oiii and Sii images into a color image with SHO --> RGB, respectively

• slight SCNR (bright areas protected with Ha mask)

• Some curves to adjust colors

• LRGBCombination using stretched Ha as luminance (accidentally left that Ha mask on from earlier so it applied more to the bright parts, and honestly turned out nicer than applying the Ha luminance to the entire image)

• Shitloads of Curve Transformations to adjust lightness, hues, contrast, saturation, etc

• DeepSNR

• MLT for small scale chrominance noise reduction

• DarkStructureEnhance script

• LocalHistogramEqualization

• more curves

• invert > slight scnr (masked) > invert to remove some background magentas

• even more curves

• Pixelmath to add in the stretched RGB stars only image from earlier

  This basically re-linearizes the two images, adds them together, and then stretches them back to before. More info on it here)

  mtf(.005,

  mtf(.995,Stars)+

  mtf(.995,Starless))

• Resample to 65%

• Annotation

no effort november my beloved

Not to self promote my own community too much, but [email protected] if you wanna see amateur photos of space