[marco (Marco Lorenzi)]

Thanks to all for the very kind words !

Originally Posted by strongmanmike

Well...that's a visual feast Marco, I enjoyed the meal, from the pappardelle HII to the polpette OIII bubbles, yumissimo

Mike

good to know I didn't get a "pasticcio"

Originally Posted by philiphart

you are one crazy guy. that's incredible dedication to the cause and another amazing result.

so tell us more about your 'flat' adventures. are you using sky flats? you're operating remotely with a wide field so i don't know if you have much other option? what is the main software you're using to blend and adjust the mosaic?

Phil

Hi Phil, I am using the flipflat and taking flats to the limit of my camera linearity to get the highest possible s/n (i.e. my flats go to 45K ADU)
Unfortunately the main problem is the natural skyglow, despite the location I am shooting from is very dark and free from light pollution, the natural skyglow on large field has different color response as you get closer to the horizon. In other words, on a 12 degree per side FOV you have different colors of the background and, since the altitude of the object changes during the exposures and not all exposures were take with the object in the same alt/azimuth location (not even during the shots using same filter) when you sum up the image and stretch a lot you get always the background not completely even..

As processing software, after the image calibration done with Maxim), I use only PS. As must-have plug-ins I have GradientXterminator (couldn't do without) and Noise Ninja (very useful). Spikes on stars (if can add some contribution to the look of the image) are done with StarSpikesPro plug-in.

Thanks again to everybody!

Clear Skies
Marco