The North America Nebula in Cygnus
(Gulf of Mexico region)
with 10" f/3.9 Astrograph
Uploaded 8/25/16

 
The
            monsoon season is usually pretty brutal when it comes to taking
            night sky images. After a cloud filled day, the sky cleared for
            a few hours and I was able to get a few hours on this gem nearing
            the zenith this time of year. Intense lightning flashes over
            the horizon ended the session, and by 11pm the sky let loose
            in one giant electrical storm with tons of rain. Fortunately,
            this was enough time to get a deep shot with this fast scope.
            The composition here was absolutely critical. By rotating the
            field to best effect, I could just fit the desired gulf of Mexico
            region and the fantastic accompanying dark nebula perfectly in
            this shot. The star images are very nice right to the edges with
            this instrument, ay?! Not bad for f/3.9....

            


            
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Instrument:  10" f/3.9 Orion Astrograph Newtonian with Baader MPCC
Mount:  Astrophysics 1200 QMD
CCD Camera:  SBIG 10XME NABG with Enhanced Water Cooling
Guider: Meade DSI Pro  w/80mm piggyback refractor
Exposure:  RGB = 50:20:15
AstroDon RGB Combine Ratio:  1: 1.05: 1.2
Location:  Payson, Arizona, Elevation:  5150 ft.
Sky:  Seeing FWHM = 5 arcsec , Transparency 7/10
Outside Temperature:  55 F
CCD Temperature:  -20 C
Image Processing Tools: 
Maxim DL6:  Calibration, deblooming (Starizona Debloomer), aligning, stacking
PixInsight:  Curves, Deconvolution
Photoshop CS2:  Curves, Color Correction, Gradient removal (Grad Xterminator), Cleanup

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