The Cygnus Loop (radio source W78, or Sharpless 103) is a large supernova remnant (SNR) in the constellation Cygnus, an emission nebula measuring nearly 3° across. Some arcs of the loop, known collectively as the Veil Nebula or Cirrus Nebula, emit in the visible electromagnetic range. Radio, infrared, and X-ray images reveal the complete loop.
Image:
Equipment/software:
- Nikon D90
- Sigma 300mm prime lens
- Sky-Watcher Star Adventurer
- Star Adventurer Tripod
- Bahnitov Mask
- Intervalometer
- DIY diffraction spikes so that 52 cyg wasn’t horrible to look at
- Stellarium
- All Sky Plate Solver
- Sharpcap
Acquisition:
- 94 x 2 minutes (total around 3 hours)
- 150 bias
- 200 flat
- 10 dark
Processing:
- Crop
- DBE
- Deconvolution
- MaskedStretch
- Non-Linear Noise reduction using MLT
- Star Reduction
- MLT noise reduction
- Star redcution again
- MLT again
- Star reduction (there were a lot of stars)
- MLT one more time
- Curves using color masks
- Curves without color masks
- One more slight star reduction
Annotated Image:
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