Horsehead M66 Horsehead


Date: April 6, 2003
Exposure: LRGB : 120:40:40:80 24 x 300s L, 4 x 600s R & G, 8 x 600s B
Processing: MaxIm for Image calibration,(40 flats, dark subtracted and median combined, 25 bias frames median combined, 40-300s darks median combined, 25-600s darks median combined, alignment, normalization, stretch, and RGB combine. Photoshop 7.0 for LRGB processingfinal adjustment and jpg conversion.
Conditions: Good, Mag 6 (New Mexico Skies)
Scope: Meade 16" SCT (2.02 arcsec/pixel)
Camera: AP6, OPTEC IFW -30°
Comments: The skies were very dark and clear. Good transparency, but the seeing was not great. The wind blew steady 7, with gusts up to 20 for short bursts. The Meade is in Dome 2 and I was able to close the dome so that it left a slot open just wide enough for the scope to track for the entire series. This helped control the wind and I only lost a few images due to star elongation from the wind. The images were guided with an STV Deluxe and it work flawlessly.