Scope: C8 f/2.8; Location: Del Mar CA;
4 Oct. 2004; Camera: ToUcam SC3
Exposure: 18 x 10 sec and 16 x 3 sec Luminance exposures with Baader IR Block Filter;
15 x 10 sec RGB
Processing: All exposures captured in K3CCDTools. Alignment and stacking was done with Registax and saved as FITs. LRGB channels were co-registered in
Astroart. Luminance and Color channels were scaled and rough color balanced in
Astroart. The shorter Luminance exposure was combined with the longer one
to reduce star bloat in the Luminance construction. Final LRGB combine was done in Photoshop using Luminance Layering (or LLRGB). Color
balancing and final touches were done in Photoshop. SGBNR (PixInsight LE) was used to smooth background noise on the luminance channel. Resized to approximately 800x600.
This image was an unguided exposure. This exposure was taken in a fairly light
polluted area with haxe and clouds so the image quality was degraded somewhat.. This is one of
two Messier open clusters
in Cassiopeia (along with M103). Horizontal FOV is about 32'.