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Ryderscope
19-02-2019, 07:43 PM
An experiment this one was with data captured last July from Nyngan in Central NSW, Australia. An experiment because as well as capturing a 3 row x 8 panel mosaic I also took three frames per panel with a view to integrating the frames to improve noise management. Finished up with a 1GB file and eventually purchased a new computer to handle the processing load as my old lap top was taking forever :D.

Location was a few kilometers to the west of Nyngan so the perspective is looking east. We can see Mars shining brightly in the foreground and many deep sky objects across the arc of the Milky Way. Antares very prominent at the top of the image proving that it really is a companion to Mars.

A link to the image on Astrobin is here. (https://astrob.in/391679/0/)
Click on image in Astrobin for larger resolution.

Technical details are:
* Canon 60Da with Samyang, F2.8 14mm lens
* Images taken at ISO3200, 20 seconds
* Camera mounted on tripod using a panoramic head
* Photoshop for initial noise reduction and exposure adjustment
* Pixinsight to register and stack frames
* PtGUI for stitching mosaic
* Pixinsight for final processing

Comments and critique welcome.

gregbradley
20-02-2019, 10:51 AM
Very nice Rodney. I like that a lot.

Greg.

Ryderscope
21-02-2019, 02:15 PM
Thanks Greg, it was definitely a processing challenge and I let it go and picked it up again a few times. I have data from another session in September last year which was also taken at Nyngan but this time looking west to the setting Milky Way. Should be interesting to see how it compares.

Cheers.

leon
21-02-2019, 08:48 PM
Top effort indeed i really like that wide-field image.

Leon

gregbradley
22-02-2019, 02:36 PM
Yeah I do that sometimes too. These panoramas can be a challenge. PT Gui often does not like star images only and you have to manually pick the points. It puts a stop on your processing efforts.

Free Microsoft ICE is easier to use and quite effective.

I believe AAP software is very good for mosaics.

Greg.

Ryderscope
22-02-2019, 09:48 PM
Many thanks Leon.

Ryderscope
22-02-2019, 10:36 PM
Thanks for the tip re Microsoft ICE Greg. I’ve dowloaded a copy and from the couple of test runs completed it works well as is quite easy to use.

CJ
23-02-2019, 12:59 PM
Very nice indeed. :thumbsup:

Ryderscope
23-02-2019, 07:16 PM
Thanks Chris.