Had a previously banned user from a discord I moderate join back months later with my wife’s name as their username and a photo of her as the pfp

Go for it

So technically 32 Cygni is just the bright star in the pic, and the rest of it is just hydrogen gas floating around in space. The constellation Cygnus has a ton of this hydrogen-alpha gas floating around, and I kinda just pointed at a semi-random spot in the constellation to get a pic. Although this was taken with an Ha filter, the stars are true color RGB, and I mapped the Ha channel to red so it closely resembles the actual color of hydrogen-alpha. Also for those curious here is a starless version that better shows the faint nebulosity/structures. Also pls ignore the crunchiness around 32 Cyg itself, it’s an artifact of my camera’s microlensing + the star removal program I use. Captured over like a dozen nights in December 2024 from a bortle 9 zone.

Places where I host my other images:

Flickr | Instagram

Equipment:

• TPO 6" F/4 Imaging Newtonian

• Orion Sirius EQ-G

• ZWO ASI1600MM-Pro

• Skywatcher Quattro Coma Corrector

• ZWO EFW 8x1.25"/31mm

• Astronomik LRGB+CLS Filters- 31mm

• Astrodon 31mm Ha 5nm, Oiii 3nm, Sii 5nm

• Agena 50mm Deluxe Straight-Through Guide Scope

• ZWO ASI-290mc for guiding

• Moonlite Autofocuser

Acquisition: 29 hours 18 minutes (Camera at -15°C), unity gain

• Ha - 161x600"

• R - 51x60"

• G - 59x60"

• B - 48x60"

• Darks- 30

• Flats- 30 per filter

Capture Software:

• Captured using N.I.N.A. and PHD2 for guiding and dithering.

PixInsight Preprocessing:

• BatchPreProcessing

• StarAlignment

• Blink

• ImageIntegration per channel

• DrizzleIntegration (2x, Var β=1.5)

• Dynamic Crop

• DynamicBackgroundExtraction

  duplicated each image and removed stars via StarXterminator. Ran DBE with a shitload of points to generate background model. model subtracted from original pic using the following PixelMath (math courtesy of /u/jimmythechicken1)

  $T * med(model) / model

Narrowband Linear:

• Blur and NoiseXTerminator

• StarXterminator to completely remove stars from each the image

• HistogramTransformation to stretch nonlinear (calling this the Ha image now)

Broadband/RGB linear:

• ChannelCombination to make color image from R G and B stacks

• StarX (correct only)

• SpectrophotometricColorCalibration

(duplicated image at this point, to be used for stars only processing later)

• StarX to completely remove stars (at this point it’s just background, with a little bit of signal in the R channel)

• Blended unstretched Ha image into the red (and a little bit of the blue channel) with this pixelmath:

  R = $T+B*(Ha- med(Ha))

  G = $T

  B = $T+B*0.2*(Ha- med(Ha))

  honestly can’t remember what I used for the B constant, but the default is 2 in my pixelmath ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

• HistogramTransformation to stretch nonlinear (calling this the Starless image now)

Stars only processing:

• HSV repair to fix blown out star cores

• StarXterminator to generate an image containing only the stars (without any background)

• ArcsinhStretch + Histogramtransformation to stretch nonlinear (Calling this the Stars image now)

Nonlinear:

• LRGBCombination to add the stretched Ha image to the stretched Starless image as a luminance layer

• NoiseXterminator

• Background neutralization

• Several curve transformations to adjust lightness, contrast, saturation, color balance, etc

• LocalHistogramEqualization

• Another round of noiseX

• Pixelmath to add in the stretched RGB Stars image from earlier

  This basically re-linearizes the two images, adds them together, and then stretches them back to before. More info on it here)

  mtf(.005,

  mtf(.995,Stars)+

  mtf(.995,Starless))

• few more curve adjustments

• FastRotation 180 degrees (pic was originally upside down)

• DynamicCrop again (just a little bit)

• Resample to 60%

• Annotation

Thanks!

I decided to do a deep dive into just the core of the Heart Nebula itself. Mellotte 15 is the name for the bright structure in the image, but the rest of the nebula itself is pretty extensive, and features the nearby soul nebula. IMO the uncropped heart nebula looks more like a chode with huge balls, but I can kinda see where it got it’s heart name… Captured over 8 nights in November 2024 from a bortle 9 zone.

Places where I host my other images:

Flickr | Instagram

Equipment:

• TPO 6" F/4 Imaging Newtonian

• Orion Sirius EQ-G

• ZWO ASI1600MM-Pro

• Skywatcher Quattro Coma Corrector

• ZWO EFW 8x1.25"/31mm

• Astronomik LRGB+CLS Filters- 31mm

• Astrodon 31mm Ha 5nm, Oiii 3nm, Sii 5nm

• Agena 50mm Deluxe Straight-Through Guide Scope

• ZWO ASI-290mc for guiding

• Moonlite Autofocuser

Acquisition: 29 hours 50 minutes (Camera at -15°C), unity gain

• Ha - 58x600"

• Oiii - 62x600"

• Sii - 59x600"

• Darks- 30

• Flats- 30 per filter

Capture Software:

• Captured using N.I.N.A. and PHD2 for guiding and dithering.

PixInsight Preprocessing:

• BatchPreProcessing

• StarAlignment

• Blink

• ImageIntegration per channel

• DrizzleIntegration (2x, Var β=1.5)

• Dynamic Crop

• DynamicBackgroundExtraction

  duplicated each image and removed stars via StarXterminator. Ran DBE with a shitload of points to generate background model. model subtracted from original pic using the following PixelMath (math courtesy of /u/jimmythechicken1)

  $T * med(model) / model

Narrowband Linear:

• Blur and NoiseXTerminator

• made SHO image and extracted stars to be processed separately

• StarXterminator to completely remove stars from each Ha, Oiii, and Sii image

• HistogramTransformation to stretch nonlinear

Stars only image:

• SpectrophotometricColorCalibration (narrowband working mode)

• HSV repair

• arcsinhstretch

• scnr > invert > scnr > invert to remove greens and magentas

• HistogramTransformation

• (combined with starless pic later on)

Nonlinear:

• PixelMath to combine monochrome Ha Oiii and Sii images into a color image with SHO --> RGB, respectively

• HistogramTransformation to adjust red green and blue color channels separately (basically stretched R and B, and toned the G down some)

• LRGBCombination using stretched Ha as luminance

• DeepSNR

• Shitloads of Curve Transformations to adjust lightness, hues, contrast, saturation, etc

• Clone stamp to remove one weird small blue speck near the core of the nebula (might’ve just clipped the colors a little too much in the histogram adjustments above^)

• LocalHistogramEqualization (two rounds of this. one at kernel radius 16 for small scale detail, and one at 500 for large structures)

• More curves

• DarkStructureEnhance script (0.15 amount)

• Pixelmath to add in the stretched RGB stars only image from earlier

  This basically re-linearizes the two images, adds them together, and then stretches them back to before. More info on it here)

  mtf(.005,

  mtf(.995,Stars)+

  mtf(.995,Starless))

• some more curves

• One more round of noiseX for small scale noise reduction

• DynamicCrop in on just the core region

• Resample to 80%

• Annotation

Still shooting in Cygnus…

Though I think IC1318/γ Cyg can be used to describe most of the nebulosity around the star Sadr, stellarium has it directly over the bright nebula in this image. Overall I’d consider it an improvement over my last go at it back in 2020. Captured over 12 nights from Oct-Nov 2024 from a bortle 9 zone.

Places where I host my other images:

Flickr | Instagram

Equipment:

• TPO 6" F/4 Imaging Newtonian

• Orion Sirius EQ-G

• ZWO ASI1600MM-Pro

• Skywatcher Quattro Coma Corrector

• ZWO EFW 8x1.25"/31mm

• Astronomik LRGB+CLS Filters- 31mm

• Astrodon 31mm Ha 5nm, Oiii 3nm, Sii 5nm

• Agena 50mm Deluxe Straight-Through Guide Scope

• ZWO ASI-290mc for guiding

• Moonlite Autofocuser

Acquisition: 25 hours 40 minutes (Camera at -15°C), unity gain

• Ha - 50x600"

• Oiii - 57x600"

• Sii - 47x600"

• Darks- 30

• Flats- 30 per filter

Capture Software:

• Captured using N.I.N.A. and PHD2 for guiding and dithering.

PixInsight Preprocessing:

• BatchPreProcessing

• StarAlignment

• Blink

• ImageIntegration per channel

• DrizzleIntegration (2x, Var β=1.5)

• Dynamic Crop

• DynamicBackgroundExtraction

  duplicated each image and removed stars via StarXterminator. Ran DBE with a shitload of points to generate background model. model subtracted from original pic using the following PixelMath (math courtesy of /u/jimmythechicken1)

  $T * med(model) / model

Narrowband Linear:

• Blur and NoiseXTerminator

• made SHO image and extracted stars to be processed separately

• StarXterminator to completely remove stars from each Ha, Oiii, and Sii image

• HistogramTransformation to stretch nonlinear

Stars only image:

• SpectrophotometricColorCalibration (narrowband working mode)

• HSV repair

• arcsinhstretch

• scnr > invert > scnr > invert to remove greens and magentas

• HistogramTransformation

• (combined with starless pic later on)

Nonlinear:

• PixelMath to combine monochrome Ha Oiii and Sii images into a color image with SHO --> RGB, respectively

• slight SCNR (bright areas protected with Ha mask)

• Some curves to adjust colors

• LRGBCombination using stretched Ha as luminance (accidentally left that Ha mask on from earlier so it applied more to the bright parts, and honestly turned out nicer than applying the Ha luminance to the entire image)

• Shitloads of Curve Transformations to adjust lightness, hues, contrast, saturation, etc

• DeepSNR

• MLT for small scale chrominance noise reduction

• DarkStructureEnhance script

• LocalHistogramEqualization

• more curves

• invert > slight scnr (masked) > invert to remove some background magentas

• even more curves

• Pixelmath to add in the stretched RGB stars only image from earlier

  This basically re-linearizes the two images, adds them together, and then stretches them back to before. More info on it here)

  mtf(.005,

  mtf(.995,Stars)+

  mtf(.995,Starless))

• Resample to 65%

• Annotation

Decided to just shoot a semi-random part of Cygnus. The large extended Ha region in Cygnus is unofficially called Smaug, and this is a photo specifically of the area around LBN 325/326. The nebulosity in this pic is false color, but the stars are true color RGB. I really love how this turned out with the narrowband palette, especially with the Oiii region on the right side looking almost like a true color Ha region. Captured over a shitload of nights from Aug-Oct 2024 from a bortle 9 zone.

Places where I host my other images:

Flickr | Instagram

Equipment:

• TPO 6" F/4 Imaging Newtonian

• Orion Sirius EQ-G

• ZWO ASI1600MM-Pro

• Skywatcher Quattro Coma Corrector

• ZWO EFW 8x1.25"/31mm

• Astronomik LRGB+CLS Filters- 31mm

• Astrodon 31mm Ha 5nm, Oiii 3nm, Sii 5nm

• Agena 50mm Deluxe Straight-Through Guide Scope

• ZWO ASI-290mc for guiding

• Moonlite Autofocuser

Acquisition: 57 hours 40 minutes (Camera at -15°C), NB exposures at unity gain and BB at half unity

• Ha - 111x600"

• Oiii - 127x600"

• Sii - 94x600"

• R - 48x60"

• G - 48x60"

• B - 44x60"

• Darks- 30

• Flats- 30 per filter

Capture Software:

• Captured using N.I.N.A. and PHD2 for guiding and dithering.

PixInsight Preprocessing:

• BatchPreProcessing

• StarAlignment

• Blink

• ImageIntegration per channel

• DrizzleIntegration (2x, Var β=1.5)

• Dynamic Crop

• DynamicBackgroundExtraction

duplicated each image and removed stars via StarXterminator. Ran DBE with a shitload of points to generate background model. model subtracted from original pic using the following PixelMath (math courtesy of /u/jimmythechicken1)

$T * med(model) / model

Narrowband Linear:

• Blur and NoiseXTerminator

• StarXterminator to completely remove stars (to be later replaced by the RGB ones)

• HistogramTransformation to stretch nonlinear

RGB Linear:

• ChannelCombination to combine monochrome R G and B frame into color image

• SpectroPhotometricColorCalibration

• BlurXTerminator for star sharpening (correct only)

• HSV Repair

• StarXterminator to generate a stars-only image

• ArcsinhStretch + HT to stretch nonlinear (to be combined with starless narrowband image later)

• Invert > SCNR > invert to remove magentas

• Curves to saturate the stars a bit more

Nonlinear:

• PixelMath to combine monochrome Ha Oiii and Sii images into a color image with Jimmy’s Royale Palette

R = 0.3*Oiii+0.7*(Oiii^~(0.7*Ha+0.3*Sii))^1.2

G = ((Oiii*Ha)^~(Oiii*Ha))*Ha + _((Oiii*Ha)^(Oiii*Ha))*Sii

B = 0.9*Sii+Ha-Oii

• NoiseX again

• Shitloads of Curve Transformations to adjust lightness, hues, contrast, saturation, etc

• more curves

• Extract L --> LRGBCombination for chrominance noise reduction

• even more curves

• Pixelmath to add in the stretched RGB stars only image from earlier

This basically re-linearizes the two images, adds them together, and then stretches them back to before. More info on it here)

mtf(.005,

mtf(.995,Stars)+

mtf(.995,Starless))

• Couple final curves

• Resample to 60%

• Annotation

0, I’m just raw dogging /all (minus whomever .world is defederated from)

Med student here. I probably would’ve failed a lot of in house exams/step 1 if I didn’t use anki. IMO it’s best for solidifying knowledge and quick recall of facts, but doing a shitload of practice questions is the best way to apply what you’ve memorized through anki (this last bit is most applicable to med school/mcat prep).

Really the main cost with it is your time. If you miss a day or two it can be daunting to get back in the groove and work on your review backlog. I usually have enough downtime during the day and time on the shitter to get through my reviews + whatever new cards I add. Anki itself is free but they do have a paid iOS app that I got just to use whenever I had a few mins of spare time.

As for the learning curve, this will vary if you’re making your own cards vs using a premade deck for a large standardized exam. Once you know the formatting it isn’t that difficult to make cloze cards for what you’re trying to learn.

NGC 4490 is a galaxy colliding with the smaller NGC 4485 galaxy, and both are about 25 million light years away. This image was taken with a monochrome camera through filters for luminance (all visible light), red, green, blue, and Hydrogen-alpha (656nm), which were combined into a color image. The Hydrogen-alpha was combined with red (described below) to make the HaLRGB image. The pink Ha regions are star forming nebulae within the galaxies. This got cropped out of the final pic, but I ended getting some gorgeous diffraction spikes on this star near the edge of the full FOV

Places where I host my other images:

Flickr | Instagram

Equipment:

• TPO 6" F/4 Imaging Newtonian

• Orion Sirius EQ-G

• ZWO ASI1600MM-Pro

• Skywatcher Quattro Coma Corrector

• ZWO EFW 8x1.25"/31mm

• Astronomik LRGB+CLS Filters- 31mm

• Astrodon 31mm Ha 5nm, Oiii 3nm, Sii 5nm

• Agena 50mm Deluxe Straight-Through Guide Scope

• ZWO ASI-120MC for guiding

• Moonlite Autofocuser

Acquisition: 27 hours 37 minutes (Camera at half Unity Gain, -15°C)

• Ha - 128x360"

• Lum - 464x60"

• Red - 152x60"

• Green - 150x60"

• Blue - 123x60"

• Flats- 30 per filter

• 24 JimmyFlats per broadband filter

Capture Software:

• Captured using N.I.N.A.

PixInsight Processing:

• BatchPreProcessing (with premade JimmyFlats)

• StarAlignment

• Blink

• ImageIntegration

• DrizzleIntegration (2x, Var β=1.5)

• DynamicCrop

• DynamicBackgroundExtraction

duplicated each image and removed stars via StarXterminator. Ran DBE to generate background model. model subtracted from original pic using the following PixelMath (math courtesy of /u/jimmythechicken1)

$T * med(model) / model

Luminance:

• BlurXTerminator

• ArcsinhStretch + histogramtransformation to bring nonlinear

RGB:

• ChannelCombinaiton to combine monochrome R, G, B stacks into color image

• SpectroPhotometricColorCalibration

• BlurXTerminator (correct only mode)

• HSV Repair

making clean Ha

loosely following this guide

This basically subtracts any broadband signal from the Ha pic, leaving only the Ha emission, which is then combined in with the red and a little bit of the blue channels

• PixelMath to isolate just Ha

Ha-Q * (Red-med (Red)), Q=0.75

• PixelMath to add Ha into RGB image

Red = $T+B*(Ha_Clean - med(Ha_Clean))

Green = $T

Blue = $T+B0.2(Ha_Clean - med(Ha_Clean))

B variable = 0.6 (this controls how strongly the Ha is added)

Nonlinear

• ArcsinhStretch + histogramtransformation to bring HaRGB image nonlinear

• MLT for large scale chrominance noise reduction

• shitloads of curve transformations to adjust lightness, contrast, saturation, etc (with various luminance and star masks)

• slight SCNR to remove some greens

• LRGBCombination with stretched Luminance

• DeepSNR

• more curves

• ColorSaturation to slightly desaturate the Ha regions (they were very pink compared to the rest of the galaxy

• slight noisexterminator

• LocalHistogramEqualization

• even more curves

• Resample to 75%

• DynamicCrop onto just the galaxy

• annotation

Iirc the original goal was ‘at least 10’ but maybe up to 100 flights for a booster. No way to really know without flying them a lot

It may not be as big or well known as the other well known cluster in Hercules (M13), but it sure looks nice. Captured over 4 nights in July/August 2024 from a Bortle 9 zone

Places where I host my other images:

Instagram | Flickr

Equipment:

• TPO 6" F/4 Imaging Newtonian

• Orion Sirius EQ-G

• ZWO ASI1600MM-Pro

• Skywatcher Quattro Coma Corrector

• ZWO EFW 8x1.25"/31mm

• Astronomik LRGB+CLS Filters- 31mm

• Astrodon 31mm Ha 5nm, Oiii 3nm, Sii 5nm

• Agena 50mm Deluxe Straight-Through Guide Scope

• ZWO ASI-120MC for guiding

• Moonlite Autofocuser

Acquisition: 6 hours 55 minutes (Camera at half Unity Gain, -15°C)

• Lum - 209x60"

• Red - 78x60"

• Green - 62x60"

• Blue - 66x60"

• Flats- 30 per filter

• 24 JimmyFlats per filter

Capture Software:

• Captured using N.I.N.A.

PixInsight Processing:

• BatchPreProcessing (with premade JimmyFlats)

• StarAlignment

• Blink

• ImageIntegration

• DrizzleIntegration (2x, Var β=1.5)

• DynamicCrop

• DynamicBackgroundExtraction

duplicated each image and removed stars via StarXterminator. Ran DBE with a shitload of points to generate background model. model subtracted from original pic using the following PixelMath (math courtesy of /u/jimmythechicken1)

$T * med(model) / model

Luminance:

• BlurXTerminator (correct only mode)

• ArcsinhStretch + histogramtransformation to bring nonlinear

RGB:

• ChannelCombinaiton to combine monochrome R, G, B stacks into color image

• BlurXTerminator (correct only mode)

• SpectroPhotometricColorCalibration

• HSV Repair

• ArcsinhStretch + histogramtransformation to bring nonlinear

• Curves to saturate it a little

• MLT for large scale chrominance noise reduction

Nonlinear:

• LRGBCombination with stretched L as luminance

• DeepSNR Noise reduction

• Several CurveTransformations to adjust lightness, contrast, colors, saturation, etc.

• Invert > SCNR > invert > SCNR to remove some greens and magentas

• More curves

• A little bit of noiseXterminator

• DynamicCrop in on the clustert

• Resample to 75%

• Annotation

Oh no! Where will I go to see OF spam bots now???

Only 7 years ago!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qU7FuAswPW0

I love procrastinating on processing my images! I got set up early at a dark site last month and decided to shoot the sun while it was still up. There were a shitload of sunspots, including AR3697 in the bottom right. This sunspot group was the one that gave us the wonderful aurora back in May (back when it was known as AR3664)

Places where I host my other images:

Flickr | Instagram

Equipment:

• TPO 6" F/4 Imaging Newtonian

• Orion Sirius EQ-G

• ZWO ASI1600MM-Pro

• Skywatcher Quattro Coma Corrector

• ZWO EFW 8x1.25"/31mm

• Astronomik LRGB+CLS Filters- 31mm

• Moonlite Autofocuser

• Astrozap BAADER AstroSolar Density 5 filter

Acquisition:

• Green filter - 5000 frames at gain 139 and 0.324ms exposure

Capture Software:

• Captured using sharpcap

Processing:

• Stacked the best 25% of frames in Autostakkert, 2X resample and autosharpened

• Colorized using curves in Photoshop

• More lightness/Hue Adjustments

• Astrosurface wavelets to remove some grid artifacts from stacking

• STF applied in pixinsight

• Annotatation

I’m guessing it’s called that because it’s kinda headphone shaped. It was discovered in the 30’s so I’m assuming only the brightest parts of the nebula were visible to the astronomers.

This image is a combination of false color narrowband images for the nebula itself, plus true color RGB stars (the nebula is mostly red and a little blue in true color). If you zoom in to the center you can see the very blue white dwarf that caused the planetary nebula to form. Also for those curious this is what a single 10 minute long Ha exposure looks like (image total is 83.5 hours exposure). Captured over 33 nights from Jan-May 2024 from a bortle 9 zone.

Places where I host my other images:

Flickr | Instagram

Equipment:

• TPO 6" F/4 Imaging Newtonian

• Orion Sirius EQ-G

• ZWO ASI1600MM-Pro

• Skywatcher Quattro Coma Corrector

• ZWO EFW 8x1.25"/31mm

• Astronomik LRGB+CLS Filters- 31mm

• Astrodon 31mm Ha 5nm, Oiii 3nm, Sii 5nm

• Agena 50mm Deluxe Straight-Through Guide Scope

• ZWO ASI-290mc for guiding

• Moonlite Autofocuser

Acquisition: 83 hours 30 minutes (Camera at -15°C), NB exposures at unity gain and BB at half unity

• Ha - 238x600"

• Oiii - 247x600"

• R - 54x60"

• G - 53x60"

• B - 54x60"

• Darks- 30

• Flats- 30 per filter

Capture Software:

• Captured using N.I.N.A. and PHD2 for guiding and dithering.

PixInsight Preprocessing:

• BatchPreProcessing

• StarAlignment

• Blink

• ImageIntegration per channel

• DrizzleIntegration (2x, Var β=1.5)

• Dynamic Crop

• DynamicBackgroundExtraction 3x

duplicated each image and removed stars via StarXterminator. Ran DBE with a shitload of points to generate background model. model subtracted from original pic using the following PixelMath (math courtesy of /u/jimmythechicken1)

$T * med(model) / model

Narrowband Linear:

• Blur and NoiseXTerminator

• StarXterminator to completely remove stars (to be later replaced by the RGB ones)

• ArcsinhStretch to slightly stretch nonlinear

• iHDR 2.0 script (low preset) to stretch each channel the rest of the way.

here’s the link to the repo if you want to add it to your own PI install.

RGB Linear:

• ChannelCombination to combine monochrome R G and B frame into color image

• SpectroPhotometricColorCalibration

• BlurXTerminator for star sharpening (correct only)

• HSV Repair

• StarXterminator to generate a stars-only image

• ArcsinhStretch + HT to stretch nonlinear (to be combined with starless narrowband image later)

• Invert > SCNR > invert to remove magentas

• Curves to saturate the stars a bit more

Nonlinear:

• PixelMath to combine stretched Ha and Oiii images into color image (/u/dreamsplease’s palette)

R = iif(Ha > .15, Ha, (Ha*.8)+(Oiii*.2))

G = iif(Ha > 0.5, 1-(1-Oiii)*(1-(Ha-0.5)), Oiii *(Ha+0.5))

B = iif(Oiii > .1, Oiii, (Ha*.3)+(Oiii*.2))

• NoiseX again

• Background Neutralization

• Shitloads of Curve Transformations to adjust lightness, hues, contrast, saturation, etc

• even more curves

• Pixelmath to add in the stretched RGB stars only image from earlier

This basically re-linearizes the two images, adds them together, and then stretches them back to before. More info on it here)

mtf(.005,

mtf(.995,Stars)+

mtf(.995,Starless))

• Couple final curves

• Resample to 65%

• DynamicCrop

• Annotation

Sh2-64 is the red nebula to the right of the image. It frames up pretty well with the more golden stars seen in the milky way core. I probably should’ve gotten more exposure time to help bring out some of the dark nebula details, but it was only clear for one night at the dark site (at least the night went perfectly, which is rare for trips out to the middle of nowhere). Captured on June 7th, 2024 from a Bortle 3 zone (Deerlick Astronomy Village)

Places where I host my other images:

Flickr | Instagram

Equipment:

• TPO 6" F/4 Imaging Newtonian

• Orion Sirius EQ-G

• ZWO ASI1600MM-Pro

• Skywatcher Quattro Coma Corrector

• ZWO EFW 8x1.25"/31mm

• Astronomik LRGB+CLS Filters- 31mm

• Astrodon 31mm Ha 5nm, Oiii 3nm, Sii 5nm

• Agena 50mm Deluxe Straight-Through Guide Scope

• ZWO ASI-290mc for guiding

• Moonlite Autofocuser

Acquisition: 5 hours 44 minutes (Camera at half unity gain -15°C)

• L - 76x120"

• R - 32x120"

• G - 32x120"

• B - 32x120"

• Darks- 30

• Flats- 30 per filter

Capture Software:

• Captured using N.I.N.A. and PHD2 for guiding and dithering.

PixInsight Preprocessing:

• BatchPreProcessing

• StarAlignment

• Blink

• ImageIntegration per channel per panel

• DrizzleIntegration (2x, Var β=1.5)

• Dynamic Crop

• DynamicBackgroundExtraction

Luminance Linear:

• BlurXterminator (Correct only)

• NoiseXterminator

• HistogramTransformation + sketchpad’s iHDR script (low preset) to stretch to nonlinear

RGB Linear:

• ChannelCombination to combine monochrom R G and B stacks into color image

• SpectrophotometricColorCalibration

• BlurXterminator (correct only)

• HSV repair

• ArcsinhStretch + iHDR script (low preset) to stretch to nonlinear

Nonlinear Processing:

• LRGBCombination using stretched L as luminance

• DeepSNR

• Various curve adjustments for lightness, contrast, hue, saturation, etc (with varying lum/star masks)

• Slight SCNR green

• ColorSaturation to boost the saturation of the Ha region

• More curves

• NoiseXterminator

• invert > SCNR > invert to remove some magentas

• LocalHistogramEqualization

two rounds at scale 16 and 132 to target different sized structures

• LOTS more curve adjustments

• MultiscaleLinearTransform for chrominance noise reduction

• Even more curves

• Resample to 60%

• Annotation

This is already the highest res (at least in terms of being zoomed in), but here’s the entire uncropped photo

thanks!

Finally done with classes and I got some time to at least star processing my pics. Gonna be a while before I figure out all the HDR stuff, so here’s a pic of the prominences about 10 seconds before C3. It was absolutely nutty seeing them naked eye during the eclipse, and visually through my other telescope. Captured on April 8th, 2024 from Sikeston, MO.

Places where I host my other images:

Flickr | Instagram

Equipment:

• TPO 6" F/4 Imaging Newtonian

• Orion Sirius EQ-G

• Canon T3i (Ha modded)

• Skywatcher Quattro Coma Corrector

• Moonlite Autofocuser

Acquisition:

• Single 1/4000" exposure at ISO 100

Capture Software:

• Eclipse Orchestrator Free for automating the capture sequence

• NINA for controlling the mount and autofocuser

Photoshop processing:

• Crop, and some minor adjustments to exposure, contrast, shadows, whites, and blacks, and slight S curve