Witchhead Nebula
Tonight's image is the Witchhead Nebula.
Details:
Astrotech AT65EDQ
Nikon D7000
Sirius EQ-G guided with Orion 50mm mini guide scope and ToupTek Guide Cam
6 x 10 minute exposures at ISO 400
80 x bias frames
30 x flat frames
Calibrated, corrected, debayered, stacked in PixInsight. Edits in PI are Dynamic Background Extraction, SCNR to remove green, masked stretch, curves adjustment to boost shadows.
Exported to Photoshop, edits in Photoshop were Dust and Scatches with screen layer to increase brightness, followed by overlay layer with high pass filter to increase contrast, then some curves modification for slight contrast adjustments. Followed that with color blotch reduction, smart sharpen, and slight star size reduction. Final edits done in Lightroom (mostly noise reduction and some saturation).
I need to restack this with different stacking perameters, my pixel rejection wasn't strong enough I guess and there are some geosynch satellite trails passing right through the top of the nebula. Only had 2 hours to shoot and ended up tossing away half my frames for one reason or another, forgot to take the bahtinov mask off, forgot to set the NikonHacker black point hack for 3 of the exposures, battery ran out half way through one exposure, focus was off for one exposure. More learning experiences with this scope and mount, I guess. Oh and it was even colder tonight at Rockport, around 5 degrees when I left, I'm really getting tired of shooting in such cold temps, looking forward to spring.
