Deep Sky LDN1355 (The Helping Hand Nebula)

[OhNo]

This one is seldom photographed area. It is a Dark Nebula in Cassiopeia. I often search AP image web sites to see how others have captured and imaged a new targets. There are often page (60 images per page) after page after page of images of the same target, this one has 29 images in total.

I got 12 frames of 240 seconds for each of my LRGB filters. The 48 frames plus the 48 flats and 48 darks proved to be a little too much for my computer to digest at one go. I had to use the "how do one person eat an elephant by themself" approach. I had to Calibrate and Register the images from each filter as a group. (12 images from the Lum filter +Flats+Darks). When I had save all the masters from each filter I had to Register the 4 masters in PixInSIght. No big deal but and extra step. I suspect the computer issue was the result of not enough RAM. Each image is just shy of 40MB in size.

The stars were easy to capture, the foreground dust not-so-much. I will go back and gather more data when to opportunity arises.

 

[Larry]

There's one I've never heard of. Nice work!

Larry

 

[OhNo]

I am disappointed in this one. All of my images lately have been off. They say the sky has had Average to Above Average Transparency and Seeing. I occasionally go out to check the sky while imaging and would say it is below average. I suspect forest fire smoke in the upper atmosphere may be to blame.....

 

[Larry]

Are you familiar with "Astrospheric"? It's an app that has a filter to show the projected smoke interference. Accurate enough for me.

Larry

 

[OhNo]

Have used it every day since he started..... is good but when he misses, he misses by a country mile.....