The Pacman Nebula (NGC 281) in the constellation Cassiopeia

A real favorite of mine, and not too difficult to image with the right filters



Using the Redcat 51 with an asi183mc pro cooled color camera and the l-extreme dual narrowband filter.  Autoguided to get 3 minute subs, only an hour and fifteen minutes of data but still getting decent results after processing in PixInsight.  The mount used is the skywatcher alt/az configured for eq mode.



Another shot using a zenithstar 61 with two minute subs and the l-extreme filter.  This time with 5 total hours collected.


Monochrome SHO version 10 hours 15 minutes total integration time
5 minute subs collected over several nights from 10/2/23 to 10/20/23



After some processing in iPad app to adjust contrast and image sharpening


17 hours total integration time, 10/26/24 PixInsight Foraxx Palette

    - Drag S,H,O Fit Files into PixInsight
    - For each S,H,O file
        - Dynamic Alignment (needed in some cases)
        - Dynamic Crop
        - Linear Fit to S * this doesn't always turn out right
        - Automatic Background Extractor
        - BlurExterminator
        - Convert from Linear to non Linear
            - ScreenTransferFunction + HistogramTransformation
        - Starnet++
    - Foraxx Palette Script
    - SCNR to reduce green
    - Luminance Mask to darken background with CurvesTransformation
    - Green Mask and CurvesTransformation
    - Scripts/Toolbox/EnhanceNebula, then darken background
    - NoiseExterminator
    - DarkStructure Enhance
    - CorrectMagenta Stars on stars
    - PixelMath to add back stars
    - StarReduction

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