u/NickC89

Equipment:

Stock Canon EOS R5

Canon EF 500mm f/4L IS II USM

iOptron HAE29C-EC Mount

ASIAIR Mini

UniGuide 32 guide scope

ASI120MM guide camera

Acquisition:

133*180" (6h33mm) subs @ ISO1600 and f/4 under Bortle 2 skies.

Master flat

Master bias

Processing:

Stacked in PixInsight with Weighted Batch Preprocessing

BlurXTerminator

Color Calibration using standard daylight values for Canon R5 sensor

Color Correction Matrix from DXOMark applied with Pixel Math

GradientCorrection

FindBackground to locate darkest area in image

Background Neutralization w/ that region

StarXterminator + CorrectMagentaStars to fix chromatic aberration

Put it all back together

DeepSNR at 0.9 strength for noise reduction

MultiscaleAdaptiveStretch

CurvesTransformation to pull out the nebula a little

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I spent all night freezing in my car for this, but it was worth it. I'm very pleased with the amount of detail I was able to pull out on this target. Especially in the dimmer dust clouds that often get left behind in narrowband renditions of the Heart Nebula.

A higher quality image file is available on my AstroBin: https://www.astrobin.com/4373b8/

Equipment:

Stock Canon EOS R5

Canon EF 500mm f/4L IS II USM

iOptron HAE29C-EC Mount

ASIAIR Mini

UniGuide 32 guide scope

ASI120MM guide camera

Acquisition:

46 x 120" (1h32m) subs @ ISO800 and f/4 under Bortle 4 skies.

Master flat

Master bias

Processing:

Stacked in PixInsight with Weighted Batch Preprocessing

GradientCorrection

Color Calibration using values for Canon R5 sensor from DXOMark

Color Correction Matrix from DXOMark applied with Pixel Math

Background Neutralization

BlurXTerminator to sharpen stars slightly

DeepSNR

MultiscaleAdaptiveStretch

Cropped in slightly to cut some banding at the edge, likely from shooting at ISO 800

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I had hoped to grab more data on this region before publishing, but that probably won't happen this year. I collected this data under poor conditions (target relatively low in the sky, mild wildfire smoke), but I'm happy with the outcome all things considered.

I'm pleased with it so far, but I miss the manual transmission on my old Ford Focus. The car looks and drives beautifully, so I'm sure I'll get over it.

What accessories does everyone recommend? I'm contemplating all-season floor mats.

Equipment:

Stock Canon EOS R5

Canon EF 500mm f/4L IS II USM

iOptron HAE29C-EC Mount

ASIAIR Mini

UniGuide 32 guide scope

ASI120MM guide camera

Acquisition:

79 x 180" (3h57m) subs @ ISO800 and f/4 under Bortle 3 skies.

Master flat

Master bias

Processing:

Stacked in PixInsight with Weighted Batch Preprocessing

GradientCorrection

SpectrophotometricColorCalibration w/ Background Neutralization

Color Correction Matrix from DXOMark applied with Pixel Math

BlurXTerminator to sharpen stars slightly

DeepSNR at 0.75 strength for noise (it really didn't need much)

MultiscaleAdaptiveStretch

CreateHDRImage script. I find this makes it easier to mess with the curves later.

CurvesTransformation in RGB/K, to slightly improve contrast between the nebula and dark clouds.

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This is my first time trying out the Canon 500mm for astrophotography and it performed beyond my highest expectations. Excellent star shape and sharpness from end to end of the full frame. Not to mention π*125mm² of light-gathering aperture.

Equipment:

Stock Canon EOS R5

Sigma 135mm f/1.8 DG HSM Art Lens

iOptron HAE29C-EC Mount

ASIAIR Mini

UniGuide 32 guide scope

ASI120MM guide camera

Acquisition:

126 x 60" (2h6m) subs @ ISO800 and f/1.8 under Bortle 4 skies.

Master flat

Master bias

Processing:

Stacked in PixInsight with Weighted Batch Preprocessing

GradientCorrection w/ Automatic Convergence. My preferred tool, MultiscaleGradientCorrection, really struggled with this one. Not sure why.

SpectrophotometricColorCalibration w/ Background Neutralization

Color Correction Matrix from DXOMark applied with Pixel Math

BlurXTerminator to correct star shape from using the lens wide open

StarXTerminator to create starless image

CorrectMagentaStars script to fix some spherical aberration, an unfortunate side effect of using this lens wide open

Seti Astro's Star Stretch script on star image

DeepSNR at 0.75 strength for denoising

MultiscaleAdaptiveStretch on starless image

Rescreen stretched stars and starless images.

CurvesTransformation on the green channel and SCNR at 0.90 to clean up leftover green from the troublesome sky gradient on the left-hand (city-facing) side of this image.

CreateHDRImage script. I find this makes it easier to mess with the curves later

CurvesTransformation in RGB/K, to slightly improve contrast between the nebula and dark clouds.

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I took this at the local star party in okay conditions. My second image with my new equipment and it's forcing me to think deeply about my processing. I struggled mightily with a sky gradient from the city in this and could not fully remove it. I suspect if I could, I would get a lot more from this data. Still, I'm happy with this attempt.

Equipment:

Stock Canon EOS R5

Sigma 135mm f/1.8 DG HSM Art Lens

iOptron HAE29C-EC Mount

ASIAIR Mini

UniGuide 32 guide scope

ASI120MM guide camera

Acquisition:

136 x 90" (3h24m) subs @ ISO800 and f/1.8 under Bortle 3 skies.

10 flat frames taken with a white panel and a t-shirt

50 bias frames

Processing:

Stacked in PixInsight with Weighted Batch Preprocessing

SpectrophotometricFluxCalibration and MultiscaleGradientCorrection for the sky gradient

Seti Astro's Find Background tool to find the darkest spot on the image for background extraction

SpectrophotometricColorCalibration w/ Background Neutralization

BlurXTerminator to correct star shape from using the lens wide open

StarXTerminator to create starless image

CorrectMagentaStars script to fix some spherical aberration, an unfortunate side effect of using this lens wide open

DeepSNR at 0.65 strength for denoising

MultiscaleAdaptiveStretch with target background 0.114, aggressiveness 0.62, dynamic range compression 0.40, background reference on, and other settings default

SCNR at 0.90 to clean up leftover green in the dusty background. I think this could have been better dealt with in the background neutralization, but I'm still working on how to best deal with the sky background.

CreateHDRImage script. I find this makes it easier to mess with the curves later

CurvesTransformation in RGB/K, to bring the nebula up very, very slightly

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This is my first real imaging session with my new setup, embodied mostly in the Canon R5 and the Sigma 135mm f/1.8 lens. Both significant changes from my older D5300 and Redcat setup, very common among start astrophotographers. I am very happy with this result and it is very much worth a sleepless night in the desert.

Note that this image was shot without astrophotography filters or cooling. I think it speaks to the importance of dark skies and color-corrected processing techniques.

I went back and forth on the decision to shoot wide open for this image, before settling on wide open at f/1.8. That is 75mm of light-collecting aperture diameter and I think it shows in this image. The stars were pretty rough before BlurXTerminator and, even after, you can still see issues. I think these aberrations are worth it for the incredible detail and luminosity visible in the dust and nebulae. I may come back to this image and add new stars shot at a lower f-stop.