The images are a 4-panel Ha/OIII mosaic of NGC 3372 (part of the Carina Nebula). Leandro (@leandro from Argentina) captured the data during March/April 2024, over 16 nights to avoid the moon and bad weather. Leandro performed calibration and integration to produce the Ha and OIII stacks. I (@turfpit from the UK) worked with Leandro to produce the mosaic using Astro Pixel Processor. The resultant mosaic was a 600Mb FITS file with dimensions of 9500x6000.
Produced using HOO-2 palette in Tools > combine RGB:
- NGC3372_HOO-2.JPG (141.52 KiB) Viewed 529 times
Produced using HOO-1 palette in Tools > combine RGB:
- NGC3372_HOO-1.JPG (121.61 KiB) Viewed 529 times
Produced using HOO-1 palette in combine RGB plus Tools > HSL Selective Color to reduce green pixels in the HOO-1 image:
- NGC3372_HOO-1_HSL.JPG (117.1 KiB) Viewed 529 times
- Equipment: Montura NQH 3 Orion GoTo System; Telescope Sky Watcher 200 x 1000 Reflector Newton; Filter Optolong L-eNhance 1,25"; Camera Altair Astro 183C Pro; Guiding SkyWatcher Evo 50 x 240 mm + camera Altair 130 M + PHD2; Focus by Bahtinov Mask and SharpCap Tools
- Software: SharpCap Pro 4.1 64 bit, Astro Pixel Processor v2.0.0-beta29
- Data: Lights 90x10s, 60x30s, 45x60s, 30x120s @ gain=400; 10 darks for each exposure; 50 flats; 50 bias frames
- Location: Argentine, Latitude 24°S, altitude 1287m, Bortle 6
The following document was written based on the information given at:
https://www.astropixelprocessor.com/mos ... by-mabula/
and describes the steps to calibrate/integrate the panels and create the mosaic:
Some points to note:
- Use of Astro Pixel Processor at least v2.0.0-beta29 is recommended as this version includes fixes and improvements to LNC and MBB functions resulting in more accurate and faster mosaic construction.
- The data for each panel was calibrated, registered, normalised and integrated before attempting construction of the mosaic.
- LNC (local normalisation and correction) and MBB (multi-band blending) were used during integration to provide cleaner panels.
- LNC (local normalisation and correction) and MBB (multi-band blending) were used during construction of the mosaic.
- Once the Ha and OIII mosaics had been produced, they required registration, normalisation and 'save normalised frames' otherwise combine RGB would not function due to size mismatch.
Dave & Leandro
