IC342 (Hidden Galaxy) with 34h:40m in 14" and P1 Zeus

 IC 342 has always fascinated and flustered me.  As always please give me tips so I can get better.  

 

I had a hard time flatting this and found it noisy without darks or bias. Also my normal workflow of moving from DSS to Siril is complete. Learning to move away from stacks in Siril then Photoshop and finally GIMP was frustrating so I learned more Siril for gradient removal and noise reduction and am more happy but the journey continues. This is a challenging subject and I did lots during a fuller moon, slightly on autopilot as we had a weeks worth of clear skies amidst a major drought in Central North Carolina.  See below for more detailed questions for the hearty helpers out here on CN!

L = 127×5m = 635m
R = 104×5m = 520m
G = 88×5m = 440m
B = 97×5m = 485m
Total = 2080m
34 hours : 40 minutes

 

Location

* Bortle 6/7

* Near 35.675, -78.744 Apex, NC

* Swift Creek, North Carolina, USA

* MPC Obs = W50

 

Akule CCD Equipment H/W

* Type: Custom Home Built Newtonian (Akule | astromike (astromikephillips.wixsite.com)

* Primary Mirror: Carl Zambuto 14" f/4.5

* Corrector: TeleVue Big Paracorr 3"

* Mount: iOptron CEM-120

* Imaging Camera: Player One Zeus-M Pro Camera

* Color Filter Wheel: Player One Phoenix XL CFW

* Filters: Antlia LRGB V-Pro 50mm, Antlia 3nm Pro SHO 50mm

* Guiding: Player OneOAG-MAX

* Guide Camera: QHY5III200M

 

 

Akule CCD Processing S/W

OS: Lenovo T14s - Win11

Acquisition: Nighttime Imaging 'N' Astronomy (N.I.N.A.)

Processing in Siril:

  * Stacking

  * RGB

  * Gradient removal

  * Noise GraXpert

Gimp menuing and file conversion

 

Now for some workflow questions.

 

I was quite pleased to replace RC's GradientXterminator with Siril's Background Extraction for 12 of the 14 nights. 

 

 

 

The final two thawarted me.  I used the flats from the week long / 12 nights total session as well as more recent flats and both ended up not selecting the total background.  I tried keep all samples, and subtracting the galaxy manually but it was painful and error ridden.  What do other's do for longer, multinight sessions?

 

 

This was a welcome learning expericne with many clear nights, lessons learned, stable equipment and new, open source software like NINA and Sirl to learn!

 

My thanks to all the devs and helpful members of our great community!

 

Mike P in NC