01/10/2015. A work in progress: As done as it will be for a while: a mosaic of IC1805 and environs. Since the first time I shot this field, I've been entranced by the repeated forms of lacy dark clouds and UV-eroded pillars near the bright cluster. It's an expansive tract of sky. Three fields begin to do it justice:

 

IC 1805 and environs
Three Fields
~8x900s H-a, ~4x900s O-III, ~4x900s S-II for each panel
(Click the image for a better presentation.)

Hydrogen, oxygen, and sulphur at play out in the wilds of Cassiopeia.

 

 

Except where noted, deep-sky photos are made with an SBIG ST2000XM CCD behind a 10-inch Astro-Tech Ritchey-Chretien carried on an Astro-Physics Mach1GTO. The CCD is equipped with Baader wide- and narrow-band filters. The internal guide chip of the CCD most often keeps the OTA pointed in the right direction (I'll let you know when an OAG or guidescope takes its place). Camera control and guiding are handled by Maxim DL 5.12. The stock focuser on the AT10RC has been augmented with Robofocus 3.0.9 using adapters turned on the lathe downstairs. A Canon 6D and a modded 50D find themselves mounted on an Orion 10" F4 Newtonian or carrying widefield glass on an iOptron Skytracker. Beginning in May 2013, PixInsight has taken over more and more of the heavy lifting -- alignment, stacking, gradient removal, noise-reduction, transfer function modification, color calibration, and deconvolution. Photoshop CS4 et seq and the Focus Magic plugin get their licks in, too.

 

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