Technical Information:
(HaL)(HaR)(OIIIG))(OIIIB): Ha:1590; OIII:1260; L:1170; R:240; G:180; B:240 (a total of 78 hours of exposures); the luminance layer consists of blend of 28 fifteen-minute images using a luminance filter,
25 thirty-minute images using a luminance filter, 33 thirty-minute images using an Ha filter, 10 sixty-minute images using an Ha filter, 20 thirty-minute images using an OIII filter, and 11 sixty-minute
images using an OIII filter; the R channel is a blend of 16 fifteen-minute images taken through a red filter and the Ha data; G is a blend of 12 fifteen-minute images taken through a green filter and
the OIII data, while B is a blend of 12 twenty-minute images taken through a blue filter and the OIII data (with a bit of the Ha data included).
Equipment: RC Optical Systems 14.5 inch Ritchey-Chrétien carbon fiber truss telescope, with ion-milled optics and RCOS field flattener, at about f/9, and an
SBIG STX-16803 with internal filter wheel (SBIG filter set), guided by an SBIG AO-X/STX Guider, all riding on a Bisque Paramount ME German Equatorial Mount.
Image Acquisition/Camera Control: Maxim DL, controlled with ACP Expert/Scheduler, working in concert with TheSky X.
Processing: All images calibrated (darks, bias and sky flats), aligned, and combined in Pixinsight. Color combine in Pixinsight. Some finish work (background neutralization, color
calibration, deconvolution, gradient removal, Multiscale Linear Transform for noise reduction and sharpening, and blending the Ha data with the broadband data) done in Pixinsight;
some finish work (LRGB combination, contrast and saturation adjustment) was done in Photoshop CC.
Location: Data acquired remotely from Sierra Remote Observatories, Auberry, California, USA.
Date: Images taken on many (and I mean MANY) nights during November and December of 2021, and January of 2022. Image posted January 12, 2022.
Date: Image scale of full-resolution image: 0.56 arcseconds per pixel.
Seeing: Quite variable with individual luminance images having FWHM varying from 1.7 to 3.0 arcseconds; the luminance master was deconvolved to 1.6 arcsecond FWHM.
CCD Chip temperature: -25C