Widefield Sagitta Constellation with M27 and M71

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celeron787
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Widefield Sagitta Constellation with M27 and M71

Post by celeron787 »

Another clear night yesterday 19/07/2020.
Went for the Sagitta constellation as I could fit the whole constellation in 1 frame, with M71 in the middle. Was surprised to see M27 also pop up in a single 15sec sub. Apparently there's a few more super tiny planetary nebulae like NGC6886 within this frame, not as big as M27 but pointed out in online plate-solving.

View plate-solved version here: http://nova.astrometry.net/annotated_full/4392132

Sagitta is a dim but distinctive constellation in the northern sky. Its name is Latin for "arrow". Located between Beta and Gamma Sagittae is M71, a very loose globular cluster mistaken for quite some time for a dense open cluster.

Located a few degrees north from Sagitta in the nearby constellation Vulpecula, you can see the Dumbdell Nebula M27 which is a planetary nebula.

Equipment
Sony A6000
Samyang 135mm F2.0
Sky-Watcher Star Adventurer
Tripod

Acquisition
Bortle 8
ISO400
Light frames - 235 x 15secs
Dark Frames - 30 x 15secs
Flat Frames - 33
Bias Frames - 50

Software and Processing
Deep Sky Stacker
Photoshop - Levels stretch, gradient removal using Dust and Scratches filter, crop, levels stretch, luminance mask, curves adjustment, star reduction
Lightroom - Adjusted highlights and saturation

Image
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Airconvent
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Re: Widefield Sagitta Constellation with M27 and M71

Post by Airconvent »

Thanks for sharing. The Dumb-bell is quite distinct in your image! :)
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celeron787
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Re: Widefield Sagitta Constellation with M27 and M71

Post by celeron787 »

Airconvent wrote: Mon Jul 20, 2020 9:12 pm Thanks for sharing. The Dumb-bell is quite distinct in your image! :)
Thanks! Was also surprised to see it that distinct. I was under the impression that it's super faint object, not possible to capture under our light polluted skies and with such wide focal length. I'm glad that I'm proved wrong, maybe it's because the samyang sucks in so much light. Might go for andromeda next, quite optimistic about that.
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Airconvent
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Re: Widefield Sagitta Constellation with M27 and M71

Post by Airconvent »

Go for it! :)
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celeron787
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Re: Widefield Sagitta Constellation with M27 and M71

Post by celeron787 »

Re-processed data using StarTools.
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Airconvent
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Re: Widefield Sagitta Constellation with M27 and M71

Post by Airconvent »

Better Starfield for this one :)
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hhzhang
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Favourite scope: 115mm APO

Re: Widefield Sagitta Constellation with M27 and M71

Post by hhzhang »

Very sharp stars from corner to corner! Gorgeous starfield.
celeron787
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Re: Widefield Sagitta Constellation with M27 and M71

Post by celeron787 »

hhzhang wrote: Sat Jul 25, 2020 9:57 pm Very sharp stars from corner to corner! Gorgeous starfield.
Thanks! Still learning how to do post-processing, you can have so many iterations of 1 image that it's quite hard to decide on 1 that you like. Trying hard not to go overboard on the processing.
heyjojos
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Re: Widefield Sagitta Constellation with M27 and M71

Post by heyjojos »

Nice shots! I can really see the difference before and after stacking!!!

I have never really been very successful with DSS. I use a mac computer and it somehow doesn't work well even when you have an emulator. Don't know of any other software that does stacking.
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