rdm<p>Last night was the last night of clear weather for a week or so for us, so, despite the full moon, we popped the Dwarves up on the roof.</p><p>First up let's look at what I got the <a href="https://aus.social/tags/DwarfII" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>DwarfII</span></a> to do. I thought I'd revisit my old favourite, <a href="https://aus.social/tags/C63" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>C63</span></a> the <a href="https://aus.social/tags/HelixNebula" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>HelixNebula</span></a> . What I got surprised me greatly. </p><p>Here is the same scene - about a fortnight apart - one shot on the <a href="https://aus.social/tags/Dwarf3" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>Dwarf3</span></a> and the other on the DwarfII. In both cases there is about 7 hours of exposure, at gain 80, and both are using a dualband <a href="https://aus.social/tags/OIII" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>OIII</span></a> / <a href="https://aus.social/tags/HII" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>HII</span></a> filter. </p><p>Both were post processed in the <a href="https://aus.social/tags/StellarStudio" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>StellarStudio</span></a> and finished in <a href="https://aus.social/tags/Snapseed" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>Snapseed</span></a> . </p><p>I am utterly amazed at just how good the Dwarf2 stands up. No, it is not as good as the Dwarf3, but it is still a solid image, and one I am very pleased with.</p><p><a href="https://aus.social/tags/Astronomy" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>Astronomy</span></a> <a href="https://aus.social/tags/astrophotography" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>astrophotography</span></a> <a href="https://aus.social/tags/Astrodon" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>Astrodon</span></a> <a href="https://aus.social/tags/SmartTelescope" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>SmartTelescope</span></a> <a href="https://aus.social/tags/BackYardAstronomy" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>BackYardAstronomy</span></a></p>
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#helixnebula
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rdm<p>Over the last three nights - a break in the weather for us here in <a href="https://aus.social/tags/Boorloo" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>Boorloo</span></a> ( <a href="https://aus.social/tags/PerthWA" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>PerthWA</span></a> ) - I've been targeting the same target after midnight and through to astronomical twilight. It is another target that is familiar to me - <a href="https://aus.social/tags/C63" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>C63</span></a> or <a href="https://aus.social/tags/HelixNebula" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>HelixNebula</span></a> sometimes known as the Eye of Sauron Nebula or the Eye of God Nebula. </p><p>This is the largest planetary nebula visible to us, only about 200 parsecs away, and is about 2.8 light years across, making it about 22 arcminutes across for the main body, and is about 6500 years old. </p><p>So back to the making of this image. Each night I got about five hours of shooting in with my <a href="https://aus.social/tags/Dwarf3" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>Dwarf3</span></a> , for about fifteen hours total. I had to ditch a bunch of frames as they had dodgy data (atmospheric distortions, musktrails, and, in one case, a passing jet), which brought me down to thirteen hours and thirty-six minutes (816x60s@80). These I restacked using the "Megastack" function of the <a href="https://aus.social/tags/DwarfLab" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>DwarfLab</span></a> app (about 3 hours - executed entirely within the telescope), and then passed the result to the <a href="https://aus.social/tags/StellarStudio" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>StellarStudio</span></a> part of the app (running in the cloud) to optimize the FITS file and run a star removal.</p><p>I then exported a PNG of each version, and started post-processing. This consisted of passing the starless image into <a href="https://aus.social/tags/Snapseed" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>Snapseed</span></a> and boosting the saturation, darkening shadows and so on. Then I took the optimized version and took the shadows to maximum darkness, and reduced the overall brightness somewhat, leaving me with a reduced star version, with almost no nebula visible. Lastly, in Snapseed again, I used the double exposure tool to stack the two parts together. </p><p>And here is the result. </p><p><a href="https://aus.social/tags/Astronomy" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>Astronomy</span></a> <a href="https://aus.social/tags/Astrodon" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>Astrodon</span></a> <a href="https://aus.social/tags/Astrophotography" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>Astrophotography</span></a> <a href="https://aus.social/tags/C63" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>C63</span></a> <a href="https://aus.social/tags/HelixNebula" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>HelixNebula</span></a></p>
NASA<p>X-ray Clues Reveal Destroyed Planet <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/image-article/x-ray-clues-reveal-destroyed-planet/" rel="nofollow noopener" translate="no" target="_blank"><span class="invisible">https://www.</span><span class="ellipsis">nasa.gov/image-article/x-ray-c</span><span class="invisible">lues-reveal-destroyed-planet/</span></a> <a href="https://social.beachcom.org/tags/NASA" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>NASA</span></a> <a href="https://social.beachcom.org/tags/ChandraXRayObservatory" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>ChandraXRayObservatory</span></a> <a href="https://social.beachcom.org/tags/HelixNebula" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>HelixNebula</span></a> <a href="https://social.beachcom.org/tags/WhiteDwarfs" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>WhiteDwarfs</span></a></p>
NASA<p>X-ray Signal Points to Destroyed Planet, Chandra Finds <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/image-article/x-ray-signal-points-to-destroyed-planet-chandra-finds/" rel="nofollow noopener" translate="no" target="_blank"><span class="invisible">https://www.</span><span class="ellipsis">nasa.gov/image-article/x-ray-s</span><span class="invisible">ignal-points-to-destroyed-planet-chandra-finds/</span></a> <a href="https://social.beachcom.org/tags/NASA" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>NASA</span></a> <a href="https://social.beachcom.org/tags/ChandraXRayObservatory" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>ChandraXRayObservatory</span></a> <a href="https://social.beachcom.org/tags/HelixNebula" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>HelixNebula</span></a> <a href="https://social.beachcom.org/tags/HubbleSpaceTelescope" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>HubbleSpaceTelescope</span></a> <a href="https://social.beachcom.org/tags/MarshallAstrophysics" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>MarshallAstrophysics</span></a> <a href="https://social.beachcom.org/tags/MarshallSpaceFlightCenter" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>MarshallSpaceFlightCenter</span></a> <a href="https://social.beachcom.org/tags/Nebulae" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>Nebulae</span></a> <a href="https://social.beachcom.org/tags/PlanetaryNebulae" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>PlanetaryNebulae</span></a> <a href="https://social.beachcom.org/tags/Stars" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>Stars</span></a> <a href="https://social.beachcom.org/tags/TheUniverse" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>TheUniverse</span></a> <a href="https://social.beachcom.org/tags/WhiteDwarfs" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>WhiteDwarfs</span></a></p>
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