Horsehead M42 Plus Horsehead

(These are very large files - Broadband recommended on anything over the 50% size)

(Click on image for 70% Resolution)

(Click here for 100% of full size - 3.1MB)




Date: January, 2009
Exposure: HaRGB - 990m : 44m : 44m : 32m
33 x 1800s Ha, 22 x 120s R, 22 x 120s G, 16 x 120s B
Processing: CCDAutoPilot4 used to collect data over multiple nights. CCDSoft for image acquisition, CCDStack on a x64 Vista machine for Image calibration, Astrodon LRGB filters (40 flats each Ha,R,G,B, Bias subtracted and Sigma Clip combined, 65 bias frames Sigma Clip combined, 25 x 1800s darks, Sigma Clip combined), alignment, normalization, FITS master files creation, and RGB raw TIFF creation. Photoshop CS2 for final LRGB processing, final layers adjustment and jpg conversion for the website.
Conditions: Fair to Good, Mag 6-7 Skies
Scope: FSQ-106N
Camera: SBIG STL-11000M, -25°
Comments: This image is the combination of a West coast image and an East coast image. By that, I mean, I took the color data at my dark sky site (Blue Sky Observatory), and the Ha data at my light polluted site (Twinoaks Observatory). The two systems were both run by the same target image file under control of CCDAutoPilot4. At times, both system were running on the same night collecting data. This is a layered image with a Red color assigned to the Ha image (Ha being in the red band of light). There were halos around the brightest stars that I did my best to minimize, and my diffraction masks on the two FSQs, were not exactly aligned perfectly. But, overall, it turned out fairly well.