Just another Ara Dragon

[furgle]

This image comprises of emission line data for Sulfur-II, Hydrogen-alpha and Oxygen-III, mapped to red, green, and blue respectively.

The hydrogen signal has been attenuated to show it's interaction with the SII and OIII clouds.

This image is also my first attempt at using PixInsight for the entire data processing session.

**Image:**

* 81x 600s Sulphur-II 6nm
* 73x 600s Hydrogen-alpha 6nm
* 90x 600s Oxygen-III 6nm

**Total integration 40 hours 40 minutes.**

**Hardware:**

* Skywatcher Black Diamond 80ED
* Skywatcher EQ8 Pro mount
* QSI 683-ws8 Camera @ -15°C
* Astronomik 6nm Ha, OIII, SII filters
* Starlight Xpress Lodestar X2 Autoguider
* Innovations Foresight On Axis Guider
* Starlight Instruments Focus Boss II

**Location:**

* Orange zone in Brisbane, Australia. (Bortle 7)
* Imaged over 6 nights.

**Software:**

* Planning & camera alignment with Aladin 10
* Captured with AstroArt 6
* Guiding with PHD2 + PHD_Dither
* FocusLock live focusing
* PixInsight: Calibration, sub-frame analysis, registration, integration, dynamic background extraction, noise reduction, masked stretch, linear fit, contrast, RGB combination, background neutralisation, SCNR green, deconvolution, color balance, saturation, unsharp mask.

Much higher resolution here: http://observatory.site/astrophotography/Ara_Dragons_NGC6188/

[Atmos]

That has a fantastic 3D pop to it Adam! Excellent rendition!

[Mav]

Stunning image, well done. :)

[Peter Ward]

A heroic exposure time and very good image as a result.

Next step: more aperture...as an 80mm telescope can only do so much.

[Placidus]

Ohh! Makes us want to start a mosaic, to capture the outer dust clouds, and the feeling of a huge blue cave around the central cluster that your wide field has shown.

[furgle]

Thanks all.

There's a few places in that photo I'm interested in pointing a C11 at. My to do list is getting bigger.

[willik]

Very nice image Adam the C11 would not take such a nice image as that.
refractors are better for imaging and you don't have to have large scope just Quality.
Martin

[multiweb]

Very smooth! :thumbsup:

[LewisM]

Dark and brooding...LOVE IT! (even though I am not an NB fan, you've handle this nicely)

[Ryderscope]

And a fine pair of dragons it is Adam. Well done.