NGC 2022 is a planetary nebula in the constellation of Orion, located at a distance of 8210 light-years from the Sun.

NGC 2022 is a vast orb of gas in space, cast off by an aging star. The star is visible in the orb's center, shining through the gases it formerly held onto for most of its stellar life. When stars like the Sun grow advanced in age, they expand and glow red. These so-called red giants then begin to lose their outer layers of material into space. More than half of such a star's mass can be shed in this manner, forming a shell of surrounding gas. At the same time, the star's core shrinks and grows hotter, emitting ultraviolet light that causes the expelled gases to glow. This type of object is called, somewhat confusingly, a planetary nebula, though it has nothing to do with planets. The name derives from the rounded, planet-like appearance of these objects in early telescopes. (REF: science.nasa.gov/missions/hubble/hubbles-portrait-of-star...)

Observation data: J2000 epoch

Right ascension: 05h 42m 06.19056s

Declination: +09° 05′ 10.5843″

Distance: 8.21 kly

Apparent magnitude (V): 11.6

Apparent dimensions (V): 28″

Constellation: Orion

Tech Specs: Orion 8” RC Telescope, ZWO ASI2600MC camera running at -10F, 81 x 60 seconds, Celestron CGEM-DX pier mounted, ZWO EAF and ASIAir Pro, processed in DSS and PixInsight. Image Date: January 31, 2024. Location: The Dark Side Observatory (W59), Weatherly, PA, USA (Bortle Class 4).

Secondo lavoro di astrofotografia, ritratta la Nebulosa di Orione (M42)

Cielo con molto inquinamento luminoso e nebulosa lontana dallo zenit:

quindi si potrebbe fare molto meglio.

Critiche, commenti e consigli graditissimi.

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Data e luogo:

-Massa, 44° 2'31.08"N 10° 7'9.22"E

-23 Novembre 2011 ore 22 circa.

Had to try it again! Much happier with the lower noise, better cloud detail and overall sharper image. But having 3x as much light will do that for you.

This time, my settings were:

Canon 80D and 70-200 F4L IS

200mm, f4, ISO 1600, 30" x 76

8 darks, 8 biases

Stacked with DeepSkyStacker, default settings

Edited in lightroom and photoshop.

wiki

:) in tre notti di fila ho dormito 3 ore a notte, sono sfatto ma contento di aver provato il nuovo tubetto un po' di piu'

grazie al meteo, semiclemente, a Giuliano per l'ospitalità e agli amici che si sono susseguiti nelle tre nottate

Telescopi o obiettivi di acquisizione: APO Triplet 130/910 mm

Camere di acquisizione: Canon / CentralDS EOS Astro 50D

Montature: Sky-Watcher EQ6 Pro

Telescopi o obiettivi di guida: 80/600

Camere di guida: lacerta mgen2

Riduttori di focale: Flattener 2"

Software: DeepSkyStacker, photoshop, Adobe Lightroom 3, Noel Carboni's Astro Tools for PhotoShop

Risoluzione: 1600x1066

Date: 13 maggio 2013, 14 maggio 2013

Pose:

Orion SkyGlow 2" Imaging Filter: 21x300" ISO1600 -6C bin 1x1

Orion SkyGlow 2" Imaging Filter: 16x400" ISO1600 -6C bin 1x1

Integrazione: 3.5 ore

Dark: ~42

Flat: ~22

Temperatura: 10.00

I gave my 500mm mirror lens a go with the Sony A7 and a nano.tracker sidereal rate tracking platform tonight.

I went for 15s exposures (at the fixed f/8 aperture) and ISO 6400. In total 37 frames were used for a total exposure time of 9m 15s, along with 19 dark frames.

Images were stacked with DeepSkyStacker and with final processing in Photoshop to remove vignetting.

The Orion nebula is often referred to as a stellar nursery, a place where new stars are being formed out of collapsing gas clouds.

Fujifilm X-T10, Samyang 135mm f/2.0 ED UMC @ f2.0, ISO 1600, 42 x 60 sec, tracking with iOptron SkyTracker Pro, stacking with DeepSkyStacker, editing with Astro Pixel Processor and GIMP, taken just before astronomic dawn on Oct. 2, 2019 under Bortle 3/4 skies.

Clustermania :)

A three hour gap in the endless, persistent cloud cover gave me just enough time to do another one of these things. Nebulous stuff takes several sessions under my light polluted skies, and would take months with the weather being as it is, so clusters beckon.

This is M38, aka NGC 1912, aka The Starfish Cluster (don't ask me why), and to the right is NGC 1907. M38 is about 4,200 light years away and is about 25 light years in diameter, similar to that of its more distant neighbour M37. It is about 220 million years old. NGC 1907 is around 4,500 light years from Earth. It contains around 30 stars according to Wiki (looks like more to me) and is over 500 million years old.

This is a closer crop than my previous two cluster efforts, for two reasons: first, the framing was rubbish, and second, the stars at the edges reminded me just how much I need a field flattener!

I'm running out of double clusters to do :)

SW ED80/EQ5

Canon 500D modded, Baader Neodymium filter

56 x 180 sec subs, iso 1600

Acquisition: APT

Guiding: Quickcam Pro4000/9x50 finderscope, PHD/EQMOD/AstroEQ

Stacked in DSS and processed in CS5.

Had some issues with DSS 3.2.2, but 3.3.3 beta 51 and I got along a lot better. This is my first attempt at stacking RAW images. This is a total of 11 RAW files that represent a total of 6 minutes of integrated exposure time. The Pentax K-5ii was set at ISO 800 for all exposures and these are camera-on-tripod subs, "guided" only by the Pentax O-GPS1 unit stuck in the hot shoe, which moves the camera's sensor to compensate for the turning of the earth. The longest sub-exposure was 45 seconds.

Comet C/2022 E3 ZTF and Mars – 22x120s – 44 minutes

Stock Canon T2i – 70-200mm lens at 200mm f/4

Acquired using BackyardEOS and stacked in DeepSkyStacker 5.1.0

Imaged on February 11th, 2023 at the Danville Conservation Area (New Florence, Missouri).

Thanks go out to Bill Runge for letting me borrow his Canon lens for the night.

I added more expose time, and also this my first try at SHO (Hubble color pallet), and with Luminance from Ha.

OTA: Celestron C10N, 10" f/4.7 newtonian reflector

Camera: ZWO ASI1600MM

Exposure: H-alpha 31x10min, O3 10x10min, S2 16x10min

Mount: CEM70G

Captured with SGP

Registered and stacked with DeepSkyStacker

Photographed from Round Rock TX (light pollution zone: red)

Nikon FX

Skywatcher telescope 150/750

Eq3-2 mount

guided

no filter

bortle 5

Total integration time 1h40m

Milky Way, Ultra Wide Angle Canon Lens EF 16 35mm f2.8L II , Canon 40D, August 12, 2013, Tripod, 4 images 30 seconds each, DeepSkyStacker

Messier 94 in Canes Venatici.

Taken from the Starshed Enterprise on 31st March 2020.

A stack of 10x300s exposures using a QHY22 camera on a TS Imaging Star71 - 71mm f/4.9 Imaging APO telescope. Autoguided using OAG. Flats, darks and bias applied.

Calibration and stacking done in DeepSkyStacker and post-processing in PixInsight.

We had several clear nights on the bounce a week or two back, and I spent the time imaging this thing as Cygnus was still getting up above my house a little late. This is just short of 10 hours, but I put it away because I got the feeling it was out of focus when comparing it with the version I did back in 2011 with the 200p. The stars in the cluster don't look quite as tight as I think they should.

Whaddya reckon? Out of focus?

Continuing my collection of Not Comets (Messier objects), this is the hugely exciting M92. On its own it would be a reasonably bright cluster (not from my garden) - but when you're in the same constellation as M13, you tend to pale into insignificance.

Now the core of this was interesting. It seems to be a lot brighter even than the core of M13, and was well saturated at 180 seconds. I did some shorter subs to capture the core (10 seconds in fact) and manually stacked them because DSS just chucked out a grey splodge. Layered in, you can at least see some detail in the centre. This is a wider field of view, just to ring some changes.

Now, what next I wonder? :)

SW ED80/EQ5

Canon 500D modded, Baader Neodymium filter

93 x 180 sec subs, iso 1600

Acquisition: APT

Guiding: Quickcam Pro4000/9x50 finderscope, PHD/EQMOD/AstroEQ

Stacked in DSS and processed in CS5.

Ha: 48 x 600 seconds, ISO 800

RGB: 40 x 480 seconds, ISO 400

50 darks, 50 flats, 200 bias for each

Total exposure time: 13+ hours

Equipment: Canon 450D (full spectrum mod), Orion 8" f/3.9 Astrograph, Atlas EQ-G, Astronomik 12nm HA filter

Software: Pixinsight, DeepSkyStacker, Photoshop

Taken on 20th July 2020 with Nikon D850 and Nikkor 2.8/300mm at ISO 2000.

Stack of 200 x 1 sec in DeepSkyStacker, DBE in Pixinsight and final processing in PS.

Grande nébuleuse d'Orion (M42) Orion nebula

Nébuleuse de l'homme qui court (NGC 1975 et NGC 1977) Running Man nebula

Nikon D5100

William Optics ZenithStar 73

150x30 sec + DOF

F/5,9 -- Iso 200

Sky-Watcher Star Adventurer

Traitement: DeepSkyStacker + Gimp (traitement draft)

AstroM1

(r.1.1.2-t2)

M51 Whirlpool galaxy

Image taken on 7th March 2019

Location was Rochdale, UK.

Equipment used was a Skywatcher 8" quattro steel tube on HEQ5 pro mount, no guiding.

Canon 1100d dslr camera with an intervalometer.

The final image is a combination of 100 sixty second exposures at ISO 800. Plus calibration frames consisting of 40 of each, darks, flats, dark flats and bias.

Software used to combine all the shots and create the final image was DeepSkyStacker, to stack all the images together. StarTools to process the final image.

Nikon d90(mod)

TS72 APO + TS72flat

settings: 432mm, f6, iso800, 120min

guiding:

ZWO asi120mcs

TS 50mm guidescope

Tracking: Skywatcher Star Adventurer

software:

guiding: phd2

Stacking: Deepskystacker 4.2.2

Processing: Adobe Photoshop, GradientXterminator, Nik software, HLVG

Taken with a TMB92L, Canon T3i DSLR, Orion SSAG autoguider and 50mm guidescope, and Celestron AVX mount. Consists of 32 180-second light frames and 28 180-second dark frames, all at ISO 400, as well as 31 flat and 25 bias frames. Captured with BackyardEOS, stacked in DeepSkyStacker, and processed in Photoshop. Diffraction spikes added with StarSpikes Pro.

Taken using Skywatcher 80ED Pro, Nikon D3300, 1213x30" lights (ISO 3200), 100 flats, 110 bias. Stacked in DeepSkyStacker and processed in Photoshop.

The Crescent Nebula.

Scope: William Optics z103 (710mm) x0.8 reducer

Camera: Nikon d600 (unmodified)

Filter: Optolong L-Enhance

Guidescope: Generic 50mm

Guide camera: ASI120MM mini

10 x 600s Lights

3 x Darks

Stacked using DeepSkyStacker

Stretched in Photoshop

Final edits in Lightroom

Image taken in October of 2010, but reprocessed on 10/13/11.

30 min total exposure, taken at Roxbury, NY.

Canon T1i, 200mm 2.8L lens. Drizzled at 2x (doubled resolution) in DeepSkyStacker.

I am no expert in astro-photography. Just wanted to try it once with my new D750 - the sensor is amazing! Nikkor 50mm/1.8, 55 frames à 5sec, ISO 6400, F=2.8 - Deep Sky Stacker software - The pink structure in the upper center close to Deneb is NGC 7000, the North America Nebula. --

Region der Milchstraße im Sternbild Schwan. Ein erster Versuch, die neue D750 in den Himmel zu richten. Der Sensor ist schon erstaunlich - so wenig Rauschen. Aufnahme-Ort: bei Lauffen bei Heilbronn, mittlere bis starke Lichtverschmutzung. Gut zu sehen sind Deneb (obere Mitte) und NGC 7000, Nordamerika-Nebel, als lila Struktur links davon.

Northfield, OH

DeepSkyStacker, ImagesPlus

22 exposures @1.6 sec ISO 3200

AstroTech AT8RC + CCDT67 + Atik383L(-25C)

on Takahashi EM200 Temma2 Jr

Astrodon Tru-Balance E-Series Gen2 (with EFW2)

Ha2x900sec,L20x600sec,R2x600sec,G2x600sec,B2x900sec (Total:300min)

Guiding: OAG9 + LodestarX2

StellaImage7, DeepSkyStacker, Photoshop CC2017

Locations: Kamogawa Sports Park, Kibichuocho, Okayama, Japan

Oct 2017

Taken near Mariental (Namibia)

18x30s @ ISO 3200

(+12 blacks, +5 bias)

Equipment: Explore Scientific ED 80, iOptron Skytracker Pro, Canon EOS M3

Software: CHDK, DeepSkyStacker, Affinity Photo

OTA: Celestron C8N, 8" newtonian reflector and MPCC-III

Camera: ZWO ASI1600MM

Exposure: RGB: 12x2min each, L:73x2min

Mount: CGEM-DX

Captured with SGP

Registered and stacked with DeepSkyStacker

Photographed from Round Rock TX (light pollution zone: red)

Skywatcher 72ED Apo/field flattener,SX Trius 694/filterwheel/OAG (Lodestar)

riding on CEM60. 6x600 subframes taken through Ha and OIII filters,stacked in Deepskystacker,colour combined in Maxim DL4 (Ha,OIII,OIII) processed in Astroart 8 and PS CS2.

Taken 31/10/21

Equipment: Newton 250/1000, EQ6r-pro, Sony a6100

In three nights all together 65 light frame (ISO 3200, 300sec), 25 dark, flat and bias frames.

Processed in deepSkyStacker, Pixinsight and Photoshop

The Cone nebula and Christmas tree Cluster in Monoceros. Image dates: 16,17,18,19 & 20 feb 2017. 108x 240 seconds iso1600 with Esprit 100 triplet APO / Flattener/ Optolong L filter Canon 6Da on 10 Micron GM2000 HPS II mount. All exposures unguided. Stacked/calibrated in DeepSkyStacker with 150 Bias frames and 40 flat frames. Processed in Pixinsight.

Knight Observatory, Tomar

eapod.eu/4-march-2017-ngc-2264-complex/

- www.kevin-palmer.com - Last night was one of the very few clear nights this month. There was just enough time after the quarter moon set to photograph comet C/2014 Q2 Lovejoy at a dark site. I was able to see the comet with the naked eye and I'm looking forward to it getting even brighter in a few weeks. The comet was passing right over the globular cluster M79 on this night, but it's hard to see in this picture. This is a stack of 12 2.5-minute images, plus dark and bias frames. It was shot with a Takumar 135mm f2.5 lens at f4, ISO 1000 and an iOptron Skytracker was used to track the stars.

Location: Copernicus public observatory (Volkssterrenwacht), Overveen, The Netherlands.

Date & time: 18 february 2015, 21.50 Local Time (GMT+1).

Moonlit sky, moon low on the horizon, waxing crescent (21%).

Seeing moderate to good.

Telescope: Televue 85 refractor (f=600mm).

Lumicon UHC filter.

Camera: Pentax K-r SLR.

Mount: Paramount ME II; tracking only.

Software used: DeepSkyStacker, PhotoPlus.

10 lightframes @240s, 10 darkframes @240s, 10 biasframes, 10 flatframes; RAW-format @1600 ASA.

Between 5000 and 8000 years ago a supernova exploded in the center of this region in the constellation Cygnus. Today we see the Veil or Cirrus nebula complex with the Eastern veil (NGC6995 left), Pickerings triangle (top right) and Western veil (NGC6960 right). Photographed with Canon 6Da / Esprit 100 APO refractor with Optolong L (IR/UV cut) filter. 39x240 seconds iso1600. Stacked with DeepSkyStacker using 48 dark frames, 30 Flat frames and 174 Bias frames. Processed in Pixinsight. Very little processing, HistogramTransformation, Curves adjustment. No noisereduction was used.

Full resolution (5618x3948) can be downloaded.

Knight Observatory, Tomar

SQM 20.8

Best view: press F11 for full screen followed by L for lightbox view.

View Large On Black

Another night shot test.

10xRAW stacked in DeepSkyStacker.

I added another night of data onto my previous image of IC434. A little more lights helped with the general smoothness of the image. Setup and take down of my equipment multiple nights in a row will result in slightly different field of views which can make it difficult to align when stacking multiple imaging sessions.. luckily DeepSkyStacker could handle it easily with no hiccups. It took many hours in the freezing cold to capture this, layered up on lots of clothes to battle the outside temperature, 3 pairs of socks, 2 pairs of longjohns, 2 sweaters and goosedown jacket, toque, gloves, a thermos full of hot tea, but I still had to walk around the park a few times just to get feeling back in my toes.. And this is barely winter weather compared to the rest of Canada, Being the wet climate here though, the moisture seems to chill you right to the bone even when it is only a few degrees below freezing.

Lights: 40 x 4 mins

Darks: 34 x 4min

iso 1600

Canon 500d (Modified)

Skywatcher Esprit120

Antares ALP filter

NEQ6 + Synguider

Stacked in DSS and processed in Pixinsight

Location: Vancouver, BC

Light Pollution: Bortle Scale 7-8

Temperature: -3°C and -4°C

I gave Thor's Helmet (NGC 2359) a shot last year, but this time around I was able to get some more well-rounded data across the various narrowband wavelengths. While this nebula emits primarily in Oxygen-iii, it still has some Hydrogen-alpha and Sulfur-ii data emissions that I was able to more appropriately include (to some degree this time).

This nebula's path across my night sky has it only going above the trees for a brief window (a few hours) on a given night, so this image came from two nights toward the end of December. Each exposure was three minutes long, and I was able to get about 2.5 hours of time on both nights. Individual exposures were stacked in DeepSkyStacker and then the wavelengths were aligned and mapped to the Hubble palette in PixInsight before doing my final tweaks to taste in Lightroom.

Scope: Skywatcher 150PDS

Camera: ZWO ASI 1600MM with ZWO EFW and filters

Another clear sky, albeit with half a moon :)

Continuing my obsession with all things cluster, this is M67 in Cancer. Apparently there are few Galactic clusters known to be older (this is something like 4 billion years old), and none of them are as close as M67, so it is the subject of much study (according to Wiki). Slight variation in the spikes on this one, just to ring the changes :) A little noisy, but I had some trouble retaining the colour so decided to put up with it.

SW ED80/EQ5

Canon 500D modded, Baader Neodymium filter

60 x 180 sec subs, iso 800

Acquisition: APT

Guiding: Quickcam Pro4000/9x50 finderscope, PHD/EQMOD/AstroEQ

Stacked in DSS and processed in CS5.

Full spectrum modified Canon 6D on Skywatcher Esprit 100 APO F5.5 triplet refractor. The only filter used was an Astronomik L (UV/IR cut off filter) 43x240sec lightframes @ISO1600 (2.9 hrs) 65Bias frames, 20Flatframes, no darkframes. image date 11-sep-2015. Stacked in DeepSkyStacker, processed in Pixinsight. (DBE, background and colour calibration, histogram stretch, curves adjustment. No noise reduction.)

Messier 31, the Andromeda Galaxy, looks much better photographed from the dark sky of Killarney Provincial Park than downtown Burlington!

Taken with a Canon 70D fitted with a Sigma 50mm Art Lens mounted on an iOptron SkyTracker. Stacked in DeepSkyStacker, ten 60 second light frames shot at f/1.6, ISO 1600, with in-camera noise reduction on, and ten bias frames, no flats.

I'm still working on MPCC-III spacing and focuser tilt. The previous MPCC was much more forgiving, but it suffered from red reflections on the backside.

OTA: Celestron C8N, 8" newtonian reflector and MPCC-III

Camera: ZWO ASI1600MM

Exposure: RGB: 15x2min each, L:85x2min

Mount: CGEM-DX

Captured with SGP

Registered and stacked with DeepSkyStacker

Photographed from Round Rock TX (light pollution zone: red)

One for the Trophy cabinet :-)

apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap191014.html

twitter.com/apod/status/1183767014789308417

APOD Discussion about this Image:

asterisk.apod.com/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=39897&sid=a...

Yep, my first comet :) 5,5m - not bad to try for the first time. If not the Moon :(

Left image is what I consider "normal", the right image is overcooked to drag out, kicking and screaming, what I think is the comet's tail.

Acquisition time: 07.01.2014 22:22-22:58 MSK (UT+3), comet's maximum elevation for me was around 22:41 MSK and peaked at 31° 37'.

Equipment: Canon 60Da with Astronomics CLS-CCD clip-in filter and Baader Planetarium MPCC MkIII coma corrector on Celestron OMNI XLT 150 mm Newtonian reflector riding on Skywatcher NEQ-6 Pro.

Exposures: 33 @ISO800 55 seconds with 48 darks, 60 offset frames and 50 flat field frames.

Capture software: Magic Lantern

Processing: images were stacked in DSS in comet tracking mode and stacking result was post-processed in Photoshop.

Note: the Moon: -11,8m, 93,4% full, 19° 07' high.

Note 2: DeepSkyStacker is clever. Of 33 frames I have used it had mistaken the star for the comet on just one frame. Predictive powers :)

The area around Orion's belt, taken with an old 135mm lens on 350D - about 8 x 3mins stacked in deepskystacker

Canon 20D, Tamron 18-250mm @18mm, f/3.5, H1 (3200) ISO, 15 Second Exposure

Stacked 40 light frames with Master Dark and Flat Frames, (each made from 20 shots) and made curves and saturation adjustments in Deep Sky Stacker.

Post Processed in Photoshop CC with Astronomy Tools Actions, using a number of light pollution and noise filters.

Image taken in New South Wales, Australia.

Known as the Cocoon galaxy.

The smaller companion galaxy is NGC 4485. Referred to collectively as ARP 269.

The galaxies passed close to or through one another sometime in the past and, it's almost certain gravity will bring them back together several billion years in the future.

The red/pink areas are prime star forming regions where dense clouds of ionised hydrogen are irradiated by ultraviolet light from the hot, young stars within.

ARP 269 can be found in Canes Venatici some 24 million light years away. The two galaxies having now passed by one another are now approximately 24,000 light years apart.

Boring techie bit:

Skywatcher Quattro 8" Newtonian Reflector steel tube with the f4 aplanatic coma corrector, Skywatcher EQ6 R pro mount, Altair 60mm guide scope, ZWO asi120mm guide camera mini, ZWO asi533mc pro cooled to -20c gain 100, Optolong L'enhance 2" filter, ZWO asiair plus.

180s exposures.

Best 70% of 60 light frames.

Darks, Flats & Bias.

Stacked with DeepSkyStacker and processed in StarTools.

[edit: fixed the color balance a little]

:) finalmente l'80ino tripletto e' stato sistemato dal buon Giuliano di tecnosky, e ho potuto scattare queste due nebulose, prima che passi il periodo e non si vedano fino al prossimo anno

Telescopi o obiettivi di acquisizione: Apo triplet 80/480

Camere di acquisizione: Canon / CentralDS EOS Astro 50D

Montature: Sky-Watcher EQ6 Pro

Telescopi o obiettivi di guida: 60/228

Camere di guida: lacerta mgen2

Riduttori di focale: 0.8X flattener/reducer

Software: DeepSkyStacker, Adobe Lightroom 3, Noel Carboni's Astro Tools for PhotoShop

Date: 10 agosto 2013

Luoghi: Monte Leone, Niella Belbo(CN)

Pose:

Astronomik CLS CCD clip in: 12x360" ISO1600 4C bin 1x1

Astronomik CLS CCD clip in: 3x520" ISO1600 4C bin 1x1

Integrazione: 1.6 ore

Dark: ~22

Flat: ~22

Scala del Cielo Scuro Bortle: 2.00

Temperatura: 20.00

WARNING!! Original size image contains 39 tiny megapixels*!

Constellation Cygnus, the Swan, is in the trend now, so I want to participate. The black gap in Milky Way (sometimes reffered as the Nothern Coal Sack :) where the Swan resides, is full of emission nebulae, so it is there I pointed the camera this time.

SWANS stands for Semi-Wide Angle Nebulae Survey. I'm a big fan of the way how NASA and CERN name their experiments and missions.

Lots of upgrades in all aspects of imaging. Prime lens, UHC filter, firmware hack in camera, three overlapping datasets collected in two nights, artificial flat-field image, automatic stitching, formalized processing in Photoshop. This is the positive side. On the other hand, the second night of imaging brought with it the hazard of dewing. That was the negative experience. Cost me a lot of precious time.

Some trailing is apparent at 1:1 view and bugs me, but with the arrival of polar finder it wouldn't be an issue anymore, I hope.

Another issue is the inconsistency of data, since the "Albireo" panel is this image and it differs from two other in ISO value (3200 vs 2000) and in amount of data (10 subframes vs 29 and 20, respectively).

And yet another bit of information: the Crescent nebula (see note on the image) is an unusual object. It's an emission nebula produced from the outer layers of so called Wolf-Rayet star. These rare objects are massive - about 10-15 Solar masses - highly evolved stars that had lost the outer hydgrogen shells and are in fact the exposed helium cores that produce tremendous amount of energy and dense streams of "stellar wind". Amazing objects :)

Aquisition time: 03 and 04.08.2013 between 00:00 and 01:40 MSK (UTC+4)

The Sun's deepest dive was -17° @01:30, so stricktly speaking I was imaging in the dusk.

Equipment:

Canon EF-S 60mm f/2.8 macro USM lens and Baader Planetarium 2" UHC filter mounted in front of the lens via step-down ring attached to Canon EOS 60D running Magic Lantern 2.3 firmware override riding on Vixen Polarie tracking platform over photo-tripod (alltogether codenamed "Anywhere Is, SWANS configuration").

Aperture 21,4 mm

Focal length 60 mm

Tv = 60 seconds (Magic Lantern's bulb timer and intervalometer rock the suburban skies :)

Av = f/2.8

ISO 2000 for "Deneb" and "Sadr" areas and 3200 for "Albireo" area

Exposures: 29 for "Deneb" area, 20 for "Sadr" area, 10 for "Albireo" area (plus 10 dark frames and 10 offset frames plus 2 fake flat-field frames).

Processing: Contrast was set to "linear" for all images in Canon DPP and 16-bit outputs were fed to DSS.

Flat-field images were made by applying Gaussian Blur of 250 pixel radius to a randomly chosen image from the series. After blurring the histograms were adjusted to end at 70% of saturation. Since I have aquired three series of overlapping fields, I made a Master Flat by combining fakes from both series. Works fine - without it the Veil nebula can't be seen due to vingetting.

16-bit stacking results were then processed in Photoshop with AutoContrast and Levels (namely gamma was set to 3,5), stiched in Microsoft ICE (that's coool!) and back in PS Curves were applied(skewed sigmoid curve was applied at first step, and at step two the segment of red and blue curves corresponding to the brightness of nebulae was elevated).

* 1 Megapixel = 1048576 pixels.