Astrophotography

Very nice image, Mark!

Joe

I figured out a new way to process my comet data from Thursday Aug 18.

APP = AstroPixelProcessor

PI: PixInsight

The sequence is as follows:

1. Register the frames to align the stars (APP)
2. Extract the stars from the frames using StarExterminator (PI)
3. Stack the star frames (APP)
4. Comet align the comet frames using CometAlignment (PI)
5. Stack the comet frames (APP)
6. Post-process the star stack (PI)
7. Post-process the comet stack (PI)
8. Combine the stars and comet using PixelMath (PI)

Here is the star stack

Here is the comet stack

Here is the final image

Location:

NJ Pine Barrens on Aug 18 2022

Moon at 51% illumination and reached 15% altitude at 12:30am

Equipment:

9.25" Celestron EdgeHD SCT with 0.7x reducer (1610mm FL)

ZWO ASI 2600 MC Pro (imaging camera)

iOptron CEM 70 mount

ASIair Plus system with EAF

Celestron OAG with ZWO ASI 174MM mini camera

Target:

Comet C/2017 K2 Panstarrs

FOV = 51' 19" x 34' 02"

Imaging Sequence:

no filter

16x60s 0ºC 100gain Bin1 (16min total)

collected from 9:13 to 9:32pm