M101: all RGB/Ha/Near IR combined
Posted: Sat Apr 30, 2022 10:51 am
M101 Pinwheel Galaxy in merged RGB, Ha and Near IR (NIR) 742nm data.
Around 14 hours of data collected in total.
Processing was a challenge due to the amount of different data, fuzziness of the arms and strong parts in the arms, amount of different colors, and so on. Really had to kind of force myself to stop at a certain point because each time I over-processed it
Made the choice to process it in a such a way that the red Ha data isn't too dominant but still obvious.
The NIR didn't add any structural data but it did let "see" some strong(er) stars.
Bortle 6/7
Meade LX200 8" f/10 ACF OTA
Ioptron CEM25EC mount (no guiding)
Baader Neodymium Skyglow filter
Baader IR/UV Cut filter
Optolong L-eXtreme filter
Astronomik ProPlanet IR-Pass 742nm filter
Zwo ASI071MC Pro camera
Captured with SharpCap Pro @ -10 Celsius / White balance R50 B50
Baader IR/UV Cut: 30 x 300sec / Gain 90 / Offset 4
Baader Neodymium Skyglow: 40 x 300sec / Gain 90 / Offset 4
Optolong L-eXtreme: 24 x 600sec / Gain 200 / Offset 10
Astronomik ProPlanet IR-Pass 742nm: 22 x 300sec / Gain 200 / Offset 10
Per set: 20 x darks, 50 x flats and 50 x darkflats
Stacked with DeepSkyStacker
Each set separately
Processed with Siril and Photoshop
Siril: every set Background Extraction and Histogram
Photoshop: merged data from Ha and NIR 70/30 and then merged that in the red channel of the broadband data.
Curves, Levels, Camera Raw Filter (brightness, blacks, white balance, shadows, color saturation, clarity, noise reduction)
Around 14 hours of data collected in total.
Processing was a challenge due to the amount of different data, fuzziness of the arms and strong parts in the arms, amount of different colors, and so on. Really had to kind of force myself to stop at a certain point because each time I over-processed it
Made the choice to process it in a such a way that the red Ha data isn't too dominant but still obvious.
The NIR didn't add any structural data but it did let "see" some strong(er) stars.
Bortle 6/7
Meade LX200 8" f/10 ACF OTA
Ioptron CEM25EC mount (no guiding)
Baader Neodymium Skyglow filter
Baader IR/UV Cut filter
Optolong L-eXtreme filter
Astronomik ProPlanet IR-Pass 742nm filter
Zwo ASI071MC Pro camera
Captured with SharpCap Pro @ -10 Celsius / White balance R50 B50
Baader IR/UV Cut: 30 x 300sec / Gain 90 / Offset 4
Baader Neodymium Skyglow: 40 x 300sec / Gain 90 / Offset 4
Optolong L-eXtreme: 24 x 600sec / Gain 200 / Offset 10
Astronomik ProPlanet IR-Pass 742nm: 22 x 300sec / Gain 200 / Offset 10
Per set: 20 x darks, 50 x flats and 50 x darkflats
Stacked with DeepSkyStacker
Each set separately
Processed with Siril and Photoshop
Siril: every set Background Extraction and Histogram
Photoshop: merged data from Ha and NIR 70/30 and then merged that in the red channel of the broadband data.
Curves, Levels, Camera Raw Filter (brightness, blacks, white balance, shadows, color saturation, clarity, noise reduction)
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