Horsehead M8/M20/NGC6559 Horsehead

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Date: June 8-22 , 2007
Exposure: HaLRGB - 240m : 255m : 270m : 210m : 195m
8 x 1800s Ha, 17 x 900s L, 18 x 900 R, 14 x 900s G, 13 x 900s B
Processing: CCDAutoPilot3 used to collect data over multiple nights. CCDSoftV5 for image acquisition, CCDStack on a x64 Vista machine for Image calibration, Astrodon HaLRGB filters (15 flats each Ha,L,R,G,B, Bias subtracted and Sigma Clip combined, 25 bias frames Sigma Clip combined, 12-1800s and 15-900s darks Sigma Clip combined), alignment, normalization, FITS master files creation, and RGB raw TIFF creation. Photoshop CS2 for final HaLRGB processing, final layers adjustment and jpg conversion for the website.
Conditions: Good to Excellent, Mag 6-7 Skies
Scope: FSQ-106N
Camera: SBIG STL-11000, -20°
Comments: This is my first light image from Blue Sky Observatory (BSO), my remote observatory (Sierra-Remote Observatories - http://www.Sierra-Remote.com ). I share a Paramount ME, FSQ-106N, SBIG STL-11000, Astrodon LRGBHa filters and a Takometer Rotator, FS-60C guidescope, and SBIG RGH with Steve Mandel. This was taken over multiple weekends on generator power as we wait on our permanent power connection. The 2nd or 3rd night we were fully functional, the seeing dropped under 1 arcsec ( according to our SBIG seeing monitor) !!! This image was taken while I was still tweaking the TPoint model and learning how to calibrate the Takometer. Now everything has settled down and startup and shutdown is in a nice routine.