ASTROPIXELSEATONS HILL OBSERVATORY
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FROM THE OBSERVATORY · 19-Sep-2015

Test Shot of the Orion Nebula

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Test Shot of the Orion Nebula
My original target was the Helix Nebula, but after spending most of Saturday night trying to work out how to use off axis guiding, I gave up and noticed Orion was rising. A nice bright target to use the drift aligned mount on.
BEHIND THE IMAGE

Notes from the session

I've been waiting too long for a proper astronomical camera. After being messed around with by Atik and my local suppliers, I ordered a QSI 683wsg direct from the factory. It cost less than the prices here and only took 2 weeks to get to me from placing the order to having it in my hands Mississippi to Brisbane Australia.

After processing the photos, I must say I'm impressed with my first attempt at using the QSI. I'm looking forward to more practice with it once I crack the off axis guiding.

Image:

90x 6s luminance
30x 6s red
30x 6s green
30x 6s blue
51x 10s luminance
16x 10s red
16x 10s green
16x 10s blue
40x flats
37x darks
120x bias

34.5 minutes total integration

Hardware:

Celestron EdgeHD 1100 with CGEM DX mount
Celestron 0.7x EdgeHD focal reducer
QSI 683wsg Imager @ -15°C unguided
Astronomik LRGB Typ 2c filter set



Location:

Orange Zone near Brisbane, Australia.
September 19th 2015 3:55am-6:07am.
Seeing: Average-Poor.



Software:

Captured with AstroArt 5.0
Image evaluation and rejection with CCCInspector 2.5.3 (FWHM < 4", Aspect < 30%)
CCDStack 2+: Calibrate, align, stack, combine LRGB, levels
Paint Shop Pro X: Shrink stars
Astra Image 4.0: Mitchell resize 150%, Lucy Richardson deconvolution, denoise, Bicubic resize 60%