Milky Way starfield in Cygnus at 2014mm FL
Posted: Wed Jul 27, 2022 10:47 am
Last week I realized that I never really focused on the most abundant objects arounds: stars. And also that I never really see captures of that with a long focal length scope. So I used Stellarium to look for a starfield without any other objects, dust or other features. This one came close.
This is 2 hours of data at f/10 (2014mm actual focal length). For reference: in this FOV the moon would just not fit.
This starfield is in the "head" of Cygnus.
The somewhat bright star on the right of the middle is HD 332436, a star of around MAG10. There are 3 galaxies in this FOV but to faint to see here.
Also not visible are some edges of dust clouds here but too faint and big to capture from here.
There are some "lanes" visible but those are areas with fewer stars from our viewpoint. Just like with M31 and its "propeller". If you squint a bit with your eyes, they become a bit more visible. The on its side V-shaped structure in the middle is most obvious.
And I used SiriL to count the stars. With the best settings for it, SiriL did count a bit over 23000 stars in this FOV. But the most faint and smallest stars weren't detected. So my estimate is that the amount of visible stars here is over 27000!
The 4000px version can be seen here: https://i.ibb.co/ZgvbhVL/Sterren-RGB.jpg
Bortle 6/7
Meade LX200 8" f/10 ACF OTA
Ioptron CEM25EC mount (no guiding)
Baader IR/UV Cut filter
Zwo ASI071MC Pro camera
Captured with SharpCap Pro @ -10 Celsius / White balance R50 B50
20 x 300sec / Gain 20 / Offset 4
30 x darks, 50 x flats and 50 x darkflats per set
Stacked with SiriL and Sirilic
Processed with Siril and Photoshop
Siril: Crop, Photometric Color Calibration, Histogram
Photoshop: Camera Raw Filter (white balance, contrast, darks, color saturation, lightness, sharpening), light noise reduction NoiseXterminator plug-in.
This is 2 hours of data at f/10 (2014mm actual focal length). For reference: in this FOV the moon would just not fit.
This starfield is in the "head" of Cygnus.
The somewhat bright star on the right of the middle is HD 332436, a star of around MAG10. There are 3 galaxies in this FOV but to faint to see here.
Also not visible are some edges of dust clouds here but too faint and big to capture from here.
There are some "lanes" visible but those are areas with fewer stars from our viewpoint. Just like with M31 and its "propeller". If you squint a bit with your eyes, they become a bit more visible. The on its side V-shaped structure in the middle is most obvious.
And I used SiriL to count the stars. With the best settings for it, SiriL did count a bit over 23000 stars in this FOV. But the most faint and smallest stars weren't detected. So my estimate is that the amount of visible stars here is over 27000!
The 4000px version can be seen here: https://i.ibb.co/ZgvbhVL/Sterren-RGB.jpg
Bortle 6/7
Meade LX200 8" f/10 ACF OTA
Ioptron CEM25EC mount (no guiding)
Baader IR/UV Cut filter
Zwo ASI071MC Pro camera
Captured with SharpCap Pro @ -10 Celsius / White balance R50 B50
20 x 300sec / Gain 20 / Offset 4
30 x darks, 50 x flats and 50 x darkflats per set
Stacked with SiriL and Sirilic
Processed with Siril and Photoshop
Siril: Crop, Photometric Color Calibration, Histogram
Photoshop: Camera Raw Filter (white balance, contrast, darks, color saturation, lightness, sharpening), light noise reduction NoiseXterminator plug-in.