The trials, tribulations and small triumphs of a Charlotte, NC astronomer imaging under Bortle 8/9 skies.
Wednesday, December 24, 2025
NGC 1333--20H with the Seestar S50 Bortle 8/9
NGC 1333. 20 hours total integration time under Bortle 8/9 skies. Processed in Siril with Veralux Hypermetric Stretch and cosmic clarity. Final tweaks in Affinity.
Monday, December 15, 2025
M 33 -- 2.5 hours with the Seestar S50
Last night, we had extremely clear and transparent skies here in Charlotte. Rather than drizze and stack it myself, I took the image below from a 4K raw FIT file stacked by the Seestar. The total integration time was 2.56 hours, with 20 second subs in EQ mode. I processed the image in Siril with Veralux and Cosmic Clarity. I adjusted saturation to bring out the many colors captired by the scope in Affinity 2.
Thursday, December 11, 2025
NGC 1333 with the Seestar S50
This is a 12.5 hour integration of NGC 1333 under Bortle 8/9 skies. Given those conditions, this was a tough one, especially as it's a reflection nebula, so I couldn't use a narrowband filter. The light gradients on the stacked image were terrible, but I was able to remove them with Graxpert. Most of the processing was done in Siril--special thanks to the amazing Veralux script and Cosmic Clarity for really pulling out the detail and color. I tweaked the final image in Affinity 2.
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NGC 1333--20H with the Seestar S50 Bortle 8/9
NGC 1333. 20 hours total integration time under Bortle 8/9 skies. Processed in Siril with Veralux Hypermetric Stretch and cosmic clarity. Fi...
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