Astronomical League

AstroRVing

Capturing light in the dark on the road

Gallery Messier Objects EQ6-R Pec StarNet++ Subscribe

NGC 7000 North American Nebula

  • Mount: Skywatcher EQ6-R Pro
  • Optics: William Optics Zenithstar 81
  • Focal Length: 559mm
  • Flattener: FLAT 6AIII .80 @ 447mm
  • Filter: Optolong L-eNhance Light Pollution
  • Camera: Nikon D610
  • Guide Camera: ZWO 120mm Mini
  • Guide Scope: WO f/4 50mm
  • Lights: 22
  • Darks: 5
  • ISO: 800
  • Exposure: 240 secs x 22 exposures = total 1 hour and 28 mins
  • Software: SharpCap Pro, APT, PHD2, Cartes du Ciel, DSS, PS
  • Bortle Class: 4

This is what the original looked like after stacking 22 light frames (4 min subs) with 5 dark frames in Siril. You can barely make out the red portion of the nebula.

Once I had it processed in Photoshop, I exported a tif and used StarNet++ to remove the stars so I could further process the nebula without affecting the the color of the stars. I use the stand-along version of StarNet++ and followed these instructions I found on CloudyNights to install it on my MacBook. Below is the starless version after removing all the stars.

I then opened up the starless version in Photoshop and layered it on top of the processed layer. I adjusted the starless layer opacity until I liked how it looked. The results are below with the combined starless (layered) and processed final version.



Copyright © 2024 Dave Morrison Photography