Horsehead NGC 6960/6992 Horsehead

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

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Date: June 21 - July 6 , 2007
Exposure: SIIHaOIII - 360m : 390m : 600m
12 x 1800s SII, 13 x 1800s Ha, 20 x 1800 OIII
Processing: CCDAutoPilot3 used to collect data over multiple nights. Maxim DL/CCD for image acquisition, CCDStack on a x64 Vista machine for Image calibration, Astrodon Ha,SI,OIII filters (15 flats each Ha,SII,OIII, Bias subtracted and Sigma Clip combined, 25 bias frames Sigma Clip combined, 12-1800s darks Sigma Clip combined), alignment, normalization, FITS master files creation, and RGB raw TIFF creation. Photoshop CS2 for final SIIHaOIII processing, final layers adjustment and jpg conversion for the website.
Conditions: Good to Excellent, Mag 6-7 Skies
Scope: FSQ-106N
Camera: Apogee U16M, -20°
Comments: This is my first image from Blue Sky Observatory (BSO), South mount (Sierra-Remote Observatories - http://www.Sierra-Remote.com ). This is Steve Mandel's OTA, camera, and mount (Paramount ME, FSQ-106N, Apogee U16M, Astrodon LRGBHaSIIOII filters and a Takometer Rotator, FS-60C guidescope, and SBIG 402 guide camera). This was taken over multiple weekends on generator power as we wait on our permanent power connection. The U16M is an amazing camera that is very sensitive. The biggest issue is processing multiple images since the individual framesize is 33MB. This really takes a 64 bit machine to handle all the processing efficently.