kudos to you! that’s an amazing shot! is there any chance you can share the stacked file for practice?
My life is a teaching hospital, so I see no reason not to share it. But don’t claim it as entirely your own. There’s a lot of that going on, and it’s sleazy and creepy.
I didn’t want to put a big ugly watermark in the beginning, but I altered one tiny thing, so I will know if anyone shares this as their own photo without credit.
DOWNLOAD UNPROCESSED STACKED IMAGE (19 megs, unzips to 149 megs)
If you do process it and want to share it, please credit:
“Astrophotography and stacking by Michael W. Dean / Intergalactic Prairie Studio,
Processing after stacking by (your name here).
Image covered BipCot NoGov License. https://bipcot.org“
If I get too many downloads of this, I’ll put it up as a torrent instead and change the link here.
My full process at bottom of post.
My acquisition details are here:
https://www.astrobin.com/rh1vdv/
Also see post about possibly unnamed red area top left:
https://www.astrobin.com/dhktpi/
Astro-Tech AT80ED 3.1″ f/7 ED Refractor OTA, flattened to 448 mm.
Sky-Watcher EQ6-R Pro.
ZWO ASI2600MC Pro USB3.
Bortle 2.5.
Optolong L-Ultimate 2″:
Shot near / during full moon over several nights.
120mm Zwo guide scope.ASIAIR Plus, dithering by 5 pixels every 2 images.
60 Flats.
62 Dark Flats.
89 Darks (all calibration frames shot weeks ago, but same temp within 5 degrees C on cooled camera.)
Integration: 7h 52′ (236×120″), shot more, only used best 95 percent as per Deep Sky Stacker. Pulled stacked image into PixInsight, then Photoshop.
Practice image I’m uploading is stopped right after the “Deep Sky Stacker” step. Here’s what I did next to get the image above.