NGC 7000 North American Nebula - I was happy with the results I got with only 1:51 minutes of light frames. Hope you like it.
Finally done with this image after almost 2 months! Needless to say it was a struggle processing the data and ended up start over. A lot of the data collected was during various moon phases while using the Optolong L-eNhance which wasn’t the best filter for some of these conditions. It was an experiment to see what I can get away with using a 24nm filter.
While I was processing this image I had something crazy happen. I was struggling with a particular process and communicating with people on the PixInsight forums to find a resolution. Out of nowhere I had a renown astro photographer call me on my phone and help me through the process. This is someone who is well known in the astronomy community. This completely blew my mind and thought it was crazy that someone would take time out of their day to help someone who needed it. I guess all part of the journey. In all I’m happy with the results and the resolution of the image.
Equipment
Canon Eos 6D (Modified)
Radian Raptor 61 Telescope
ASI Air Pro
ZWO ASI mini 120 w/ZWO 30mm Guide Scope
Possessed with PixInsight and Photoshop
Totals:
Bias 549
Dark 237
Flat 408
Light 268 (300s)
Congrats Brett! I’m only just starting to try my hand at astrophotography and I don’t have any dedicated gear, but I can appreciate the process you went through. The call from that astrophotographer is really cool how nice!
I hope one day to obtain an image like yours of a faraway deep sky object.
What scope/lens, and what camera?
I guess we are not suppose to comment on these?
It would be helpful to know what equipment you used and if you posted for critique you may get some advice that would be helpful.
Hi @Mark_Muller. Just reuploaded a new version of the image with more info like equipment. Let me know if you have questions I would be happy to help if you would like. You are going down a deep rabbit hole of money. Just when you thought photography was expensive here comes deep sky astro 
. What started with milkyway quickly became wide field astro. It’s insane but there is nothing like seeing that image pop up on your screen.
Hi @Dan_Baumbach Kearl Dan,
I was in a rush to get this posted and left out some info. I just updated the info. I also made a few tweaks to the image and reuploaded.
Equipment
Canon Eos 6D (Modified)
Radian Raptor 61 Telescope
ASI Air Pro
ZWO ASI mini 120 w/ZWO 30mm Guide Scope
@Dan_Kearl i don’t mind at all. I struggled with this one. I don’t have blur X terminator just have star X terminator. I will mess with it more, PixInsight is a beast. Still learning it.
The other thing I would say is you used an insane amount of calibration frames.
20 each would be fine.
Modified cameras are fine if that is your budget but you will spend a lot of time to get good results.
Astro cameras are in another league if you want to get into that.
An astro camera with an average filter would get the results you had in 60 minutes vs. your 20 hours?
If you are serious, you have a nice scope and a nice guidescope, get a real camera and a $200 filter and you will be in business.
@Dan_Kearl I imaged over 6 or 7 nights and took calibration frames for each night that why I ended up with so many. I typically do 50 flat, 50 dark, 100 bias. what would you suggest when imagining over several nights?
Im as serious an my equipment allows I supposed. However I am picking up a Paramount MyT next week and then I have to save my clams for the camera. I was looking at the ZWO 6200MM. It’s just a cost factor. I will built a good rig but it will take time. I have been taking on a lot to learn all at once for DSO with what I have and then adding in PixInsight. I have Adam Blocks Fundamentals for PI but any other suggestions would be helpful.
I moved this from the Showcase section to the Critique section. As is very clearly stated, there are no critiques in the Showcase. If you want feedback, please post in the critique section. Any exceptions are not to be permitted and since it appeared you wanted feedback (and it was given anyway), I moved the entire thread.
Brett, I would think about the 2600 instead of the 6200. 6200 file size makes processing a real challenge. The 2600 files are 52mb each so stacking them can be time consuming, I can’t imagine stacking 100mb files.
The 533 and 294 are also nice cameras if you don’t crop.
I use Pixinsight but still use Photoshop, Capture and Affinity.
@Dan_Kearl i’m a ways off of getting a camera since this Paramount MyT mount is going to set me back a couple bucks. All in due time. I do almost all of my processing in PI and do a couple tweaks in photoshop. I see a lot of people talking about Blur Xterminator looks great!
