NGC2174 Monkey Head Nebula

[nexusjeep]

Well miracles never cease another clear night so managed another imaging session and the first time with just the flattener so native F6 on the scope.

Scope : APM-LZOS 130/780 F6
Mount : Skywatcher EQ6-R
Flattener/reducer : Massimo Riccardi 1.0x flattener for LZOS.
Camera: ASI 1600MM PRO + ZWO 8 Position Filter Wheel
Filters : Ha / OIII / SII Baader 7nm
Guiding : Altair 60mm Scope + GPCAM 290M
Control : Eagle 2 Pro + Sesto Senso + Ecco for Dew Control
Software SharpCap Pro : for Image Capture, Live Stack Preview and Polar Alignment / PHD for guiding / EQMOD via EQDirect Cable / Stellarium
Processing via Astro Pixel Processor and Photoshop CS

Exposures : Ha 20 x 180s , OIII 28 x 180S, SII 28 x 180S all at Gain 200 Offset 22 at -20C 1x1 Binned

19_02_21-NGC2174 Monkey Head Nebula Ha 20x180s Oiii 28x180s Sii 28x180s 228mins 1x Flattener 200g by Nick Davis, on Flickr

Cheers
Nick

[oopfan]

Great work, Nick!
I am a relative novice when it comes to image processing. How far did APP take you before you decided to switch over to Photoshop?

Brian

[turfpit]

Very nice Nick. I am thinking I will have to evaluate APP.

Dave

[nexusjeep]

Thanks Dave / Brian,
As far as APP goes I did all the flats/darks/bias/dark flats and lights integration and calibration for each of the monochrome Ha / Oiii / Sii images. I then registered them after integration to get the three images aligned and then did an RGB combine and DDP stretch and save the FITS file out of APP at that point.

I then loaded the fits file into Photoshop CC 2019 and fiddled with the levels and curves a little as the DDP balances the channels but puts it at the mid point of the histogram so quite light as can be seen in the image below in Photoshop. If you want anymore info let me know.

Cheers
Nick

[turfpit]

Thanks for this Nick. As always, to become good at anything, it has to be done for 10,000 hours. Only 3 more years to go for me

Dave