Eastern Veil Mosaic

NGC 6992 | The Eastern Veil Nebula | October 2020

 

My first mosaic image! Only two panels and a surprisingly short integration time per panel. The veil is just super bright. This was a target I had kind of resigned to have to wait until next year to shoot, but I had a couple clear nights that were perfect.

 

My Rig for This Image: i.imgur.com/SbCPbI8.png

 

Camera: ZWO ASI1600MM-Pro

 

OTA: ES/Bresser 208mm f/3.9 newtonian

 

Mount: Orion Atlas with Rowan Belt Mod and Rail Kit controlled with Green Swamp Server

 

Guide Setup: ZWO ASI290MM-Mini and ZWO OAG

 

Accessories: 3D printed radius blocks

 

ZWO EAF on Moonlite CR2 focuser

 

ZWO EFW 36mm with 6.5nm Optolong filters

 

DIY powerbox

 

Software: NINA Imaging Acquisition Suite, PixInsight, Photoshop Lightroom

 

Acquisition

 

Lights (split between 2 panels):

Ha: 46 x 300s = 3.8 hrs

Oiii: 54 x 300s = 4.5 hrs

 

All taken at 139 Gain, 21 Offset, -30°C = **8.3 Hours total integration**

 

Darks: master dark from library

 

Bias: none

 

Flats: 30 per filter per night corrected with 1s FlatDarks

 

Editing:

 

Calibrated and Integrated in PI using WBPP and SFS.

 

Dynamic Crop

 

DBE per channel

 

Noise reduction per channel with EZ Denoise

www.cloudynights.com/topic/719344-pixinsight-ez-processin...

 

Solve Image, Mosaic by Coordinates, DNA Linear Fit, Gradient Merge Mosaic

 

Initial stretch with EZ Soft Stretch

 

Channel Combination: 50/50 mix of HOO and Foraxx’s dynamic pixelmath: thecoldestnights.com/2020/06/pixinsight-dynamic-narrowban...

 

So many curves adjustments

 

Local Histogram Equalization

 

EZ Star Reduction

 

Probably some other stuff I forgot.

 

Export TIFF

 

Import into Lightroomfor aesthetic adjustments

 

Export png because jpeg hates astrophotography

 

 

This really is one of my favorite targets and one I’d definitely like to revisit next year. Check out the video this came from here:

 

Done