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The Pac Man Nebula

CAPTURE INFO

-------------------

Scope Centering:

- RA: '0 54 16.931'"

- Dec: '+56 44 22.56'"

 

Date Captured:

October 31, Home (Bortle 7)

 

GUIDING NOTES:

Average, averaging ~0.7 RMS

 

EQUIPMENT

Optics: William Optics 61ii doublet refractor @ 368mm FL

William Optics adjustable field flattener

 

Camera: ZWO 533mc Pro (OSC) @ gain 390

 

Filters:

- 2" Optolong L-Enhance using filter drawer

 

Mount:

- iOptron GEM 28

 

Guiding:

- ZWO 120mm mini (red filter)

- William Optics 32mm f/3.75 UniGuide Guidescope

- ZWO ASI Air Pro

- Used previous calibration

- Dither: 5 pixels, every 2 frames

 

Acquisition:

- ZWO ASI Air Pro (Plan Mode)

 

IMAGE CALIBRATION (PixInsight)

 

Weighted Batch Preprocessing

- Lights, Darks, Flat Darks, Bias

- Cosmetic Correction

- Stats

- (73) 180 second subs

- Normalize Scale Gradient Script to nomalize background

 

NON LINEAR PROCESSING (PixInsight)

1. Dynamic Background Extraction

2. Background Neutralization

3. Color Calibration

3. Linear Noise Reduction using MultiscaleLinearTransform

4. Another Linear Noise Reduction using MultiscaleLinearTransform

 

LINEAR PROCESSING (PixInsight)

1. Easy Soft Stretch script

2. SCNR on the G channel

3. Removed the stars with Starnet

4. Created Range mask to hide the nebula

5. Used HistogramTransformation to darken the star halos.

6. Ran HDRMultiscaleLinearTransform to enhance nebula

7. Ran a slight "S" curve using CurvesTransformation to darken background and enhance nebula

8. LocalHistogramEqualization @ 25 for contrast on nebula

9. LocalHistogramEqualization @ 25 to further contrast nebula

10. MultiscaleLinearTransform to sharpen detail in the nebula

11. Added back the stars with 15% reduction using PixelMath

12. Created Star Mask and inverted to protect the stars

13. Increased saturation of the stars using Curves

14. Inverting the star mask back to protect stars and increased blue in the nebula using curves

15. Made image ready for the web using ICCProfileTransformation

 

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Uploaded on November 1, 2021