North America Post Climate Change :)

JimFox

Moderator
Staff member
This is NGC7000, the North America Nebual. As I processed this one, it reminded me of a potential scenario with parts of the world being flooded with the rising oceans that is happening no matter what cause you subscribe to it's effect.

There are no stars in this, because I didn't want to capture this is a mosaic (Pano) with multiple framing sessions with my longer scope that all of the North America Nebula doesn't fit into. I need to do a pano one day, but with somewhat limited imaging sessions currently, I decided to put my Tamron 150-600mm back into my imaging train. I had used it for several years to do Astro without any issues. But when I used it a few weeks ago to capture this, I immediately saw coma effects in every single star across the whole image. You would have to zoom in to see it, except for maybe 5 or 6 larger stars. But it was visible and looked horrible. I have no clue as to what caused it, because nothing has changed in how I use it or the equipment around it. For a year solid I used the ASI2600mc Pro with the filter drawer and L-Pro filter and the Tamron 150-600mm. So not sure what possible thing could have caused it to now have coma in the whole image?

It's an issue though I don't want to spend too much time on as I only used the Tamron 150-600mm so that I could image at 150mm and get all of the North America Nebula into one image, without the added complexity of going the Mosaic route. I don't plan to go back to it again. I actually have a Samyang 135mm that I bought that a lot of the Astro guys use to shoot wider. I might see about mounting it up for the next time I want to go wide. Or.... I might bite the bullet and shoot a mosaic with my good scope. :)

So a long winded explanation as to why there are no stars. Perhaps the coma wouldn't have been that visible at the resolution we post at here. But I still thought it was best to go starless. :)

13 - Lights at 120 secs with the Optolong L-Pro Filter on Night one
107 - Lights at 120 secs with the Optolong L-Pro Filter on Night two
30 - Flats
30 - Dark/Flats
10 - Darks

iOptron Gem28
ZWO ASI2600mc Pro
ZWO 120mm Mini - Guide Camera
Tamron 150-600mm @150mm
Stacked in Pixinsight
BlurXterminator
NoiseXterminator
StarXterminator
Processed in Pixinsight and Photoshop

All comments are welcome,

Jim

NGC7000_20230621to24_N_AmericaNeb_dw.jpg
 

Mike Lewis

Staff Member
Jim,

Well you have now graduated to serious astrophotographer with all the nagging, unexplained, strange, intermittent type of gear and system issues to match :p

This is a nice framing for sure. It does seem to have some extra 'busyness' in the darker background areas, perhaps from star removal not sure, as the actual noise level is not too bad really. Hard to say at this smaller resolution. Lots of details in this one too though, and the colors are nice.

I would love to see a redo with that Samyang 135mm - I have heard so many good things about it and seen so many great astro images with it. I have been close to buying one myself a few times, except for the complication and hassle of setting up a new configuration at my remote site. Probably will have to wait for a more portable setup that I might eventually get to use around CO.

ML
 

JimFox

Moderator
Staff member
Jim,

Well you have now graduated to serious astrophotographer with all the nagging, unexplained, strange, intermittent type of gear and system issues to match :p

This is a nice framing for sure. It does seem to have some extra 'busyness' in the darker background areas, perhaps from star removal not sure, as the actual noise level is not too bad really. Hard to say at this smaller resolution. Lots of details in this one too though, and the colors are nice.

I would love to see a redo with that Samyang 135mm - I have heard so many good things about it and seen so many great astro images with it. I have been close to buying one myself a few times, except for the complication and hassle of setting up a new configuration at my remote site. Probably will have to wait for a more portable setup that I might eventually get to use around CO.

ML
Thanks Mike. I kind of miss the innocent days in the beginning when everything looked good. :)

The background has more things going on because I tried not to go too dark with it as to let the background details be seen. But it's also because I think the stars did a bit of a number to the background also.

The Samyang 135mm I have, so I need to get one of those 3D printed mounts for it. I have also seen a 3ad printed AF Mount for it. But I probably wouldn't get that unless I was using it a lot.
 

Mike Lewis

Staff Member
Thanks Mike. I kind of miss the innocent days in the beginning when everything looked good. :)

The background has more things going on because I tried not to go too dark with it as to let the background details be seen. But it's also because I think the stars did a bit of a number to the background also.

The Samyang 135mm I have, so I need to get one of those 3D printed mounts for it. I have also seen a 3ad printed AF Mount for it. But I probably wouldn't get that unless I was using it a lot.
Sounds good. I have seen star removal do that sort of thing, especially with a rich star field. But I also fully support keeping the background from clipping to black to get those extra faint fuzzy details. Sometimes, it is hard to balance everything out perfectly. In this case still a very post-worthy image though.

ML
 
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