ASTROPIXELSEATONS HILL OBSERVATORY
← Back to the gallery
FROM THE OBSERVATORY · 21-Sep-2017

Symbiotic Star System R Aquarii

Open original image ↗
Symbiotic Star System R Aquarii
R Aquarii is a symbiotic star system where a white dwarf is drawing material from its binary red giant companion. The extra material is then ejected into space in loops and jets.
BEHIND THE IMAGE

Notes from the session

Image:
22x 60s Luminance bin1x1
36x 210s Luminance bin1x1
70x 480s Luminance bin1x1
8x 30s Red bin2x2
10x 105s Red bin2x2
20x 240s Red bin2x2
9x 30s Green bin2x2
9x 105s Green bin2x2
21x 240s Green bin2x2
10x 30s Blue bin2x2
10x 105s Blue bin2x2
18x 240s Blue bin2x2


Total exposure 16 hours 48 minutes.

Hardware:
Celestron C11 EdgeHD
SkyWatcher EQ8 Pro Mount
QSI 683-ws8 Camera @ -15°C
Astronomik Typ2 LRGB filters
Starlight Xpress Active Optics
Starlight Xpress Lodestar X2 Autoguider
Innovations Foresight On Axis Guider
Starlight Instruments Focus Boss II



Location:
Orange zone in Brisbane, Australia. (Bortle 7)
Imaged over 3 nights, new moon.



Software:
Planning & camera alignment with Aladin 9
Captured with AstroArt 6
Guiding with PHD2 + PHD_Dither
FocusLock live focusing
CCDInspector: Image analysis & rejection
CCDStack 2+: Calibrate, align, stack, deconvolution, remove gradients, combine RGB.
Photoshop CC: Create HDR combination, combine L+RGB, noise reduction, curves, adjust colour balance, saturation, crop.