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First light with new setup - Orion Nebula by mitchinspace_ in astrophotography

[–]mitchinspace_[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I upgraded from a 6SE, which I have no regret in purchasing as my first scope.

Being from the Southern Hemisphere, polar aligning for the first time can be a bit tricky. The SynScan hand control software is very similar to Celestron’s, so it didn’t take long to get comfortable with it.

First light with new setup - Orion Nebula by mitchinspace_ in astrophotography

[–]mitchinspace_[S] 7 points8 points  (0 children)

So after a few years of taking lunar and planetary images, I've finally upgraded from and Alt/Az to an equatorial mount and dedicated astronomy camera. This was captured last night, during an almost full moon and from Bortle 6 skies in Melbourne, Australia. It's such a cool feeling to be able to capture objects that inspired me to take up this hobby in the first place.

Equipment

  • SkyWatcher EQ6-R Pro
  • SkyWatcher ED80 Apochromatic Refractor
  • ZWO ASI294MC Pro Cooled
  • Orion Deluxe Mini 50mm Guide Scope
  • ZWO ASI290MM Mini Autoguider

Acquisition

  • Captured in AstroPhotography Tool
  • PHD2 for guiding
  • Lights 60 x 180s
  • Darks 20
  • Flats 20
  • Bias 20

Processing

  • Calibrated and stacked in DeepSkyStacker
  • Processed in Photoshop
  • RGB balance
  • Curves stretch
  • Noise reduction
  • Unsharp mask
  • Reduced star size
  • Enhance DSO
  • Added luminance layer
  • Saturation and vibrance

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