[AstroViking (Steve)]

Hello all,

OK, a bit of a long(er) post here. Then again, maybe not...

As you're aware, I picked up an Optolong L-Enhance filter for my astro setup a while back. Because of the weather (way too many cloudy and/or rainy nights) I haven't been able to get any imaging done. However, we've had a couple of clear nights (and a couple more are forecast) so I had the rig out last night and imaging away.

I chose to do the Tarantula Nebula (NGC2070) again to compare how it looks through the filter when compared to my previous attempt. (Hey, nothing like a bit of scientific method, eh??)

However, I also did some reading about why I was getting such a massive blue-shift on my images. Well, it turns out that the ZWO cameras have two in-camera white balance controls - WB_B and WB_R. WB_B is for the BLUE channel, and WB_R is for the red channel. The default values (on a scale of 0 - 100) are 95 and 52, respectively. So, any guesses as to why my images were having a fit of the blues?

The ASCOM software for Windows has it's own white balance values so the default values are never seen. As I use KStars/Ekos for my imaging, the default white balance values are used. Once I set the WB_B and WB_R values to 50, the images suddenly looked a lot, lot better.

One other impact of having the filter is that I can now do much longer images. The images below were taken from a stack of 180, 30 second exposures, for a total of 90 minutes of integration time.

I have a lot further to go with my imaging and processing work, as there is a lot of red noise in these images. I've hidden it reasonably well, but someone with sharp eyes will be able to see it.

As always - comments, critique and feedback are very welcome!

Cheers,
V

Gear: SWED72 @420mm / ASI183MC-Pro / HEQ5 / SV305 + SV165
Software: KStars / Ekos

Image details:

* Gain: 50
* Offset: 10
* Temperature: 0 degrees C
* Exposure: 30 seconds
* Lights: 180
* Darks: 25
* Flats: 25
* Dark Flats (Bias): 25
* Stacked and proc'd in Affinity Photo