This image has been a lesson in perseverance. After a month on no images because of fire smoke, clouds and/or fog I was able on Sep 2nd to capture some
Ha data on this target. Unfortunately there was some smoke, and, it was a full moon. The combination of full moon and smoke raised the
LP to about 5x the normal level, so, the
Ha data was noisy. The smoke then prevented any imaging until Friday night when the smoke level improved to the point where I could again see stars. This time there was no moon, so, I tried for Oiii data. Although the
LP was down the scattering was still pretty bad and all the stars had "halos". Still, at least it was possible to capture some data.
Because of the problems the processing was tricky. The image below is the final result. It looks ok if you don't look too closely. After seeing Martin's beautiful version of these targets I'm almost ashamed to post mine. However, it was a lot of work, so here it is.
24x600sec
Ha
24x600 sec Oiii
Apt, PHD2, PixInsight
HOO_Mottle by
STEPHEN KING, on Flickr
Thanks for looking,
Steve
Steve King: Light Pollution (Bortle 5)
Telescope + Mount + Guiding: W.O. Star71-ii + iOptron CEM40 EC + Orion Magnificent Mini AutoGuider
Camera: ASI 1600MM Pro + EFW Filter Wheel + Chroma 3nm Siii, Ha, Oiii + ZWO LRGB Filters
Software: PHD2; APT; PixInsight ***** My AP website:
www.steveking.pictures