NGC 7000 from Oakland (LRGB)

Went to Chabot Space and Science Center last night as a volunteer expecting to spend my timing showing people some of the "showcase" objects through the eyepiece. But when I realized that the fog was hiding the city lights--to the point that the Milky Way was actually visible in Cygnus (NELM approximately 4.5)--I decided to try my hand at imaging for a while. I managed to get fifty minutes of luminosity and twenty minutes each of RG&B while explaining to visitors exactly what I was trying to do. Tracking on the Mach1 GTO was just fantastic. Equinox Image was reporting typical RMS tracking errors of 0.08 pixels (0.24 arc seconds) which is essentially seeing limited. The result was far better than I expected within Oakland city limits.

NGC 7000/North America Nebula
LRGB (50:20:20:20) image with ten minute subexposures binned 1x1
FLT-110 APO @ f/6.5 (TEC); Astro-Physics Mach1 GTO; SBIG STL-11000M w/ Astrodon series I filters
Image was self guided.
Calibration (darks and flats) in Maxim DL; post processing in Photoshop CS3

Constructive criticism is welcome!

- Jared Willson

Attached Image:

Very nice, Jared. Try to go back and throw in some H-alpha data (add it to the Red channel or you can combine red and h-alpha and use it for luminosity). You'll be astonished at the result. Also, you could try your hand at LAB processing to increase color saturation a bit, without hurting highlight detail. Try this tutorial:

http://blog.epicedits.com/2007/12/20/photoshop-technique-lab-saturation-adjustments/

Jared,
The features (such as the Wall) pop pretty nice considering you did not have the benefit of H-Alpha contrast. Nice job.

Jared, wonderful shot! 8)

Turned out great. With or without that filter.
Charlie

No criticism here, Jared. Nice shot!
Eric