Jupiter--The Wonder that is Digital Processing :)

I found an old image of Jupiter I took in 2022 on 12/25. It was captured with a QHY camera and my 5 inch MAK. The stacked image looked so unpromising that I didn't process it. But then I noticed it on my desktop and, just for fun, dropped it into Registax 6. I was pretty impressed what the wavelet functions pullled out. I maxed out every one of them, and the resulting image is surprisingly decent. It's quite a tribute to the venerable Registax software! I've presented before and after images here for comparison. I also performed auto color balance in Registax.

North America Nebula Mosaic

This is a 3 hour mosaic of the North America Nebula. Stacked on the D3 and processed in Stellar Studio Photoshop PS. Yet again, the D3 did an outstanding job.

The Heart and Soul Nebulas with the Dwarf 3

This is a 2.5 hour mosaic of the Heart and Soul Nebula. Stacked in Megastack and processed in Stellar Studio and Photoshop PS. This is the first time I’ve been able to capture both of these objects in a single imaging session.

Melotte 15 image reprocessed in OHH Palette

Melotte 15

This is around 24 hours of total integration time on Melotte 15, the open cluster in the center of the Heart Nebula, and the areas around it. Individual subs were 20 seconds in EQ mode. I processed in Siril, SETI Astro, Affinity 2, and Graxpert. I’m in Bortle 8/9, so I had some gradients to remove, but the S50 captured some nice detail in the dust and gas clouds.

Comet Lemmon

Comet Lemmon.

10 min x 10 second exposures. S50. Color is a little strange, but at least it’s there :)

The Double Cluster in Perseus

The Double Cluster in Perseus. This is a 4.5 hour capture with one minute subs. Stacked on the D3 and processed in Stellar Studio. This is an object where the wide field of the D3 really excels. It also did a great job of capturing the colors of the stars.

The Ghost of Cassiopeia Seestar S50

This image of the Ghost of Cassiopeia has 12 hours of total integration time with the astro filter, including 1.5 hours of narrowband data. The inidividual exposures were 20 seconds each. I live in Bortle 8/9 skies, so the non-narrowband image had horrible light gradients which took a lot of processing in Graxpert and Affinity 2 to remove. I stacked, stretched and star processed in Siril, and did other work in Cosmic Clarity, Seti Astro and Affinity. The Ghost of Cassiopeia is region containing both emission and reflection nebllas. It is energized by the giant star Gamma Cassiopeia, which can be seen at the edge of the image. The star is 55,000 brighter than our sun and 19 times its mass.

19.5 Hours on M31 with the Dwarf 3

This is a 19.5 hour integration of M31 with the Dwarf 3 with 60s subs. I stacked, stretched and star processed in Siril. I used Cosmic Clarity for sharpening and denoising, and Graxpert to fix gradients. Final tweaking was done in Affinity 3 and Photoshop.

28.5 hours on WR134 with the Seestar S50

Here's WR134 again--this time with 28.5 hours of integration time. It was processed in Siril, Seti Astro and Affinity 2 using set of astro macros. I definitely overdid it on Cosmic Clarity!