Astrophotography: 48 hours on the Clamshell nebula!

In this video I show the processing workflow I used on this picture.
Gear:
Askar 65PHQ
Celestron AVX
ZWO ASI294MM
KZbin membership is available. Hit the join button and sign up!
There are also affiliate links. If you make any purchases using the links below, I get a small commission.
High Point Scientific
www.highpointscientific.com/?...
RC-Astro:
BlurXTerminator: www.rc-astro.com/software/bxt...
NoiseXTerminator: www.rc-astro.com/software/nxt...
StarXTerminator: www.rc-astro.com/software/sxt...
#astrophotography
#pixinsight
#hubbletelescope
Music:
'Midsommar' by Scott Buckley - released under CC-BY 4.0. www.scottbuckley.com.au

[@bokvaj]

Hello, may i kindly ask you where you downloaded the additional visual nebulae for stellarium? i tryed to find it, but without result... stellarium is showing me only the default images.

[@DSOImager]

Yes.. Ive been asked a couple of times.. I need to post a video on this soon. In Stellarium go to Sky and Viewing options Then go to Surveys There is a long list. Look for the ones called DSS colored and check those. To activate it, hit CTLR+ALT+D It takes a moment to load up. There are many other surveys you can experiment with. The DSS2 Red is another good one.

[@bokvaj]

Thank you very much :) @@DSOImager

[@TheOriginalTommo]

Thanks for this!!@@DSOImager

[@DSOImager]

@@TheOriginalTommo You're welcome!

[@sevenskiesastro]

Excellent image as per James. Clear skies bud.

[@DSOImager]

Thanks Rob!

[@LogansAstro]

A wonderful image James - the colours seamlessly blend beautifully from blue through green, yellow to the orange red. I must say I was also impressed with the first look at the starless version during processing. I will definitely make use of that tip for improving the survey catalogue in Stellarium. I have also noticed noiseX doing whacky things to the background after BlurX so more recently I've been going back to some of the more traditional noise reduction tools in PI

[@DSOImager]

Thank you Logan! This turned out to be a cool and fun target :)

[@joshmccollumastrophotography]

That has to be very rewarding to finally finish the image! I haven't shot clamshell yet, but I'll probably go for it next year as I'm already starting different huge projects for the winter sky already.

[@DSOImager]

It is. This was my first time with it.. It's still exciting for me to see a freshly stacked image on a new target :)

[@IcemanAstro]

I have only ever used the standard catalog in stellaruim, that is really useful. I have also received a DWARF, pending my first video but yeah. Beautiful work as always James, clear skies

[@DSOImager]

Thanks Isaac! Looking forward to your Dwarf review. CS!

[@davidleejenkins]

Wonderfully done James! There are so many interesting dark features within that dust. I may try this object again with a longer focal length. BTW - yes, I would love to see a review of the the ASI 294mm pro, as I’ve been considering purchasing that camera for my Edge HD8.

[@DSOImager]

Thanks David! I'll get working on the 294 video. I need to put more time in running it in bin 1 mode.

[@josephluciani5531]

Thank you for your great tutorials. They’re easy to follow and understand, but most important, they’re encouraging, i.e., you break everything down in such a way to make post processing truly accessible to someone like me who’s trying to learn more about SHO. Question: tonight’s a 94% moon, near my target, if it were you, would you forgo imaging-even in Sii?

[@DSOImager]

Thank you Joseph, really appreciate the kind words. With a 94% moon, only if the target is far from it. If my target were near the moon, I'd consider picking out a different target.. one that is starting to rise. After the moon goes away I would switch back to my original target. I've actually used bright moon nights to do recon on various targets, just to see how they frame up and if I can reach them in the case of low targets.

[@rafaberrios8142]

Proper. Curious; Did you happen to measure the SNR on your masters? I find that to be a good indicator on my point of diminishing returns… For me, after 40 or so, the next stop would have to be 100+. Haven’t done it yet. But found no benefit at 60 ish vs 35…..hrs

[@DSOImager]

I have not been paying too much attention to the SNR measurements. I tend to start/finish targets based on Moon cycles and weather forecasts. For example, lets say I've hit mid 30 hours, but looking at the forecast I'm only going to get one or two more nights before a stretch of cloudy/rainy nights. Instead of starting a new target I just keep it on the same one. By just eyeballing it, I would say that I have noticed that point of diminishing returns lives somewhere in the 30-40 hour range for most targets.

[@AstrocandyTV]

​@@DSOImagerI like this slow burn mentality. Once I adopted it the hobby became peaceful.

[@DSOImager]

@@AstrocandyTV Good to hear. :)