Messier 17 - The Omega Nebula - Victory After Heartbreak! (17 hours SHOrgb on M17!)

Hi Folks,

 

Back in June, I had three clear nights that I used to pursue a narrowband image of Messier 17, also known as the Omega Nebula.

 

When I blinked the images, I discovered to my horror that two full nights of the data were unusable due to a focus issue! I was devastated. We don't get that many clear nights!

I use focus offsets in NINA to optimize my capture. Something had invalidated that table, causing my issue.

 

However, the joy of having an observatory means that I can now capture data on marginal nights that I would have previously skipped. By capturing a few hours here and there on these marginal nights, I ended up with 17 hours on M17!

 

This was shot on my William Optics 132 FLT platform with a focal length of 720mm at f/5.5. I added some RGB frames on my last night so that I could use natural color stars.

 

The full details of this imaging project, including a detailed processing walkthrough, can be seen here:

cosgrovescosmos.com/projects/m17-shorgb#page

 

Thanks for looking!

 

Clear Skies,

Pat

Done