NGC 281 Pacman Nebula

[Paramount]

Hi all

Well I have managed to do two nights imaging in a row (that's got to be a first with our weather). I managed to start imaging at 1am after having to redo the polar alignment as I accidentally nudged one of the legs on the Tri-pier (that's enough of the excuses). For once the skies were clear with no sign of cloud but the seeing wasn't brilliant partly due to the moon nearby but also there appeared to be some very thin mist in the air as the stars didn't seem as sharp as usual.

I managed 16x10 unguided subframes finishing at 4am. The image was aligned and combined in Maxim DL and I did two aggressive iterations of curves mixed with levels in Photoshop, local contrast enhancement using Noel's tools and some extra processing using gradient xterminator and noise reduction was used to try and get rid of the effects of the mist which I think I managed to reduce to a minimum. I have had to reduce the quality to be able to post it so as always there are better quality images on my site http://www.imagingtheheavens.co.uk. I have also included a cropped closeup to better show the detail in the nebula itself

TMB 115, Starlight Xpress H36 with Ha filter on Paramount ME

Thanks for looking

Best wishes and clear skies

Gordon

[jniemann]

Wow - lovely detail - well done

[JAICOA]

Very Beautiful indeed Gordon, Even with the conditions you mentioned you did great with the processing and the outcome is tops even the crop sect. came out great. A job welldone a keeper. Clear Skies

[bunker9603]

Wow I like it very much! Great job!

[chrissy]

Very nice Gordon, I love it.

clear skies

chrissy

[winensky]

Very nice work. The croped image is beautifully sharp and has great contrast.