M78 - pixinsight mosaic test!

[alocky]

I spent the last few nights doing a two panel mosaic of M78 and assembled them in pixinsight today using the gradient merge tool, which worked a treat.
I need to re-do the calibrations for summer as the camera can't hold -25C overnight.
These are LRGB images with about 35 5 minute subs per filter over two panels, so about 280 all up. Each channel was mosaiced individually and the channel combination done afterwards.
Happy with the blend, but there's a lot of noise still in there and I keep forgetting what a tricky damn object this is to image!
Higher res on astrobin at https://www.astrobin.com/327265/
cheers!
Andrew.

[RickS]

That came together well, Andrew :thumbsup:

[Atmos]

Real nice Andrew, the GradientMergeMosaic script does a good job.

[strongmanmike]

Nice work Andrew, sounds like the mosaic processing was relatively simple..?..I like simple :D hoping to shoot this baby when I get out next too :thumbsup:

One good thing about the big FLI Proline, it provides a delta of about 58C with the big 16803 chip, so I can use my set of -30C darks year round. There are only ever a coupla summer nights a year when it is still warmer than 28C when I start, for those rare nights I either wait a little longer before starting (if it is close) or I have a set of -25C backup darks handy, it has never been warmer than 33C when I start :)

Mike

[SimmoW]

Spectacular Andrew! Cant wait to do my first mosaic soon, esp as PI sounds very effective.

Mike, i couldve used your camera last night, so hot in our house!

[gregbradley]

A lovely area for sure.

You are a brave man attempting the PI Mosaic tool. I believe that tool was invented by the devil to thwart astrophotographers!

With 23 hours total exposure it seems odd that there is quite some noise in the Ha areas on the right.

If you took some Ha it would bring out that lovely reddish hue common in that area very quickly and reduce that pixellated red there.

Greg.

[alocky]

Thanks Greg - I think some of the noise may be from using -25C darks when the camera only made it down to -20, so a fresh set of cals and I'll have another go. Great suggestion to use some Ha though, I'll get a few hours of that tonight.
The PI tool isn't that bad, it used to be a manual process where you applied a shift and a gradient to the panels, but it's largely automated now and works a treat. Not quite as easy as PS or Ptgui though!



Thanks Simmo - there's a few good tutorials online, and the newest version is reasonably straightforward to use.


That FLI of yours sure is a seriously nice bit of gear, the QSI is able to do -40, and a 16803 chip would definitely do this scope of mine some justice. Might have to sell one of the kids, though.



Thanks Colin - it didn't take a lot of tuning before I couldn't see any seams.


Thanks Rick!

[multiweb]

That's beautiful. Quite faint and difficult to get deep data at that FL. Nicely done. :thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup: