NGC6992

[Mac]

48x300 sec. Optolong L-enhance
Lights only

[Hankmeister3]

Very nice, Steve. As Cygnus climbs higher in the morning sky, you'll have plenty of opportunity to add to your NGC 6992 data. I'm hopeful that in a couple of weeks I'll be able to capture an uber widefield of the whole Veil Nebula complex with either my 200mm or the "new" 85mm EF portrait lenses. Also, I'd like to improve on my NGC 6960 (Witch's Broom or Western Veil) imaging. That beautiful, bright yellow star yields a great diffraction spike punctuation point when imaging this DSO.

[Mac]

Very nice, Steve. As Cygnus climbs higher in the morning sky, you'll have plenty of opportunity to add to your NGC 6992 data. I'm hopeful that in a couple of weeks I'll be able to capture an uber widefield of the whole Veil Nebula complex with either my 200mm or the "new" 85mm EF portrait lenses. Also, I'd like to improve on my NGC 6960 (Witch's Broom or Western Veil) imaging. That beautiful, bright yellow star yields a great diffraction spike punctuation point when imaging this DSO.

Thanks Henry, I took the time to get my best ever Polar Alignment. The software was a bit frustrating at times to use for this feature but I eventually got it dialed in and was well under 1 RMS error.

4hrs. is my longest exposure time and I'm happy with it. Pictures here on this forum just don't look the same as those I post on my own site. They look much different on Facebook and Google I might have overused the Focus feature in Topaz AI that I just purchased.

[Juno16]

Really nice Eastern Veil Steve!

Great work on the framing too. The 533 sure is a nice camera. Maybe one day ZWO will come out with a version with a larger sensor.

Looking forward to giving this one a try soon.

Nice wirk!

[Gordon]

Congratulations Steve on having your image selected as todays TSS APOD!!

app.php/article/6-14-2020-tss-astrophot ... of-the-day

[Greenman]

Nice one Steve, how did you process this one? Congrats on APOD.

[Mac]

Really nice Eastern Veil Steve!

Great work on the framing too. The 533 sure is a nice camera. Maybe one day ZWO will come out with a version with a larger sensor.

Looking forward to giving this one a try soon.

Nice wirk!

Thanks Jim... I spent a long time framing this and thanks for reminding me, I need to calibrate the guide scope and main scope again, the EAF focuser was hitting the mount when pointed straight up so the imaging train was rotated, but not the guide. Trying to manually do it and getting the right directions proved interesting while having about 75 degree disparity in rotation.

[Mac]

Congratulations Steve on having your image selected as todays TSS APOD!!

app.php/article/6-14-2020-tss-astrophot ... of-the-day

Oh wow, thank you Gordon, much appreciated!

[Mac]

Nice one Steve, how did you process this one? Congrats on APOD.

Thank you...

I downloaded 50 FITS files from the Raspberry PI4 over ethernet to my Mac where I use PixInsight.

Use Blink process to find bad subs
ImageAnalysis and throw away those with elongated stars or outliers
Debayer image, lights only
Star Align images
ImageIntegration
ABE - automatic background extraction
CurvesTransformation
Save as TIFF and import to LightRoom and edit

[Mac]

Very nice, Steve. As Cygnus climbs higher in the morning sky, you'll have plenty of opportunity to add to your NGC 6992 data. I'm hopeful that in a couple of weeks I'll be able to capture an uber widefield of the whole Veil Nebula complex with either my 200mm or the "new" 85mm EF portrait lenses. Also, I'd like to improve on my NGC 6960 (Witch's Broom or Western Veil) imaging. That beautiful, bright yellow star yields a great diffraction spike punctuation point when imaging this DSO.

Thanks Henry, I took the time to get my best ever Polar Alignment. The software was a bit frustrating at times to use for this feature but I eventually got it dialed in and was well under 1 RMS error.

4hrs. is my longest exposure time and I'm happy with it. Pictures here on this forum just don't look the same as those I post on my own site. They look much different on Facebook and Google I might have overused the Focus feature in Topaz AI that I just purchased.

So after doing the above ' best-ever polar alignment' I forgot to make the final tightening of the bolt in the mount and bumped it when closing the roof just now.

Start over again tonight.

[Juno16]

Really nice Eastern Veil Steve!

Great work on the framing too. The 533 sure is a nice camera. Maybe one day ZWO will come out with a version with a larger sensor.

Looking forward to giving this one a try soon.

Nice work!

Thanks Jim... I spent a long time framing this and thanks for reminding me, I need to calibrate the guide scope and main scope again, the EAF focuser was hitting the mount when pointed straight up so the imaging train was rotated, but not the guide. Trying to manually do it and getting the right directions proved interesting while having about 75 degree disparity in rotation.

Congratulations on the apod Steve!

Bummer about the EAF hitting the mount. Also a bummer about bumping the mount after the PA. Looks like you have some work ahead. Always something!

With my AVX, I have found that about 1.5 - 2.0 arcsec off perfect PA works well at keeping me out of as many DEC reversals during imaging. Reversals = backlash and I have about 13 seconds to deal with (according to PHD2). The thing is, even though it takes so long the mount to respond (and correct), the rms error really never gets too bad. The reversals are caused mainly by dithering. RA error is my main bad actor. I don't fret about it too much.

I use Sharpcap for PA and it only takes about five minutes to PA to a 1.5 - 2.0 and I follow it up with another alignment just to check (about 1 minute). My PHD2 total rms error the other night averaged about 1.1 arcsec/pixel and I get good stars.

Thanks again for tipping me towards the ASI EAF awhile back. After working out the backlash (thanks Steve [mention]STEVE333[/mention] !), and doing many tests to determine settings in Astrophotography Tool, I have gained confidence in the focus routine and I am overjoyed that I can focus somewhat on the fly in my field of view. I have to pause the session and start the focus routine, but I love it! I just refocus every degree temperature change or so.
Beats the heck out of moving to a bright star and using the batinov every time to focus!

Thanks man and a fine image!

[helicon]

Congrats on winning today's APOD Steve.

[Ruud]

A wonderful image, Steve. The nebula is beautifully detailed. There aren't many white stars though. I wonder, does a trick exist to suppress the cyan in the other stars? The star colour is of course a minor point and doesn't take away that yours a true TSS APOD class image. Congratulations.
Now it's time for the international jury's verdict:
    
Wow! They've never awarded a higher score than this!

[Makuser]

Hi Steve. A very nice NGC 6992 Veil Nebula image from you here. Excellent wispy details and bi-color nebulosity. Thanks for putting this up on here for us to enjoy Steve, and congratulations on winning the TSS APOD Award today.

[Graeme1858]

Really nice eastern veil image Steve.

Congratulations on the APOD.

Regards

Graeme

[Mac]

A wonderful image, Steve. The nebula is beautifully detailed. There aren't many white stars though. I wonder, does a trick exist to suppress the cyan in the other stars? The star colour is of course a minor point and doesn't take away that yours a true TSS APOD class image. Congratulations.
Now it's time for the international jury's verdict:
    
Wow! They've never awarded a higher score than this!

Thanks Ruud... I am sure there are many things I can do to improve this photo. When I view it here, it looks terrible and I need to go back to the drawing board. It was my first time using Topaz Labs de-noise plug in and I went overboard on the processing.

[Mac]

[Graeme1858]

That's a cleaner, sharper image Steve.

Nice.

Regards

Graeme

[OzEclipse]

Very nice shot and congratulations on the APOD.

Joe

[Kanadalainen]

That Optolong multi narrow pass filter is working for you! Congrats on the APOD too.