Gear
- Telescope – Meades 70mm Series 6000 Refractor
- Main Camera – ZWO ASI294MC Pro
- Filter – Optolong 2″ L-Enhance
- Mount – HEQ5
- Guide Scope – ZWO 30mm f/4 mini guide scope
- Guide Camera – ZWO ASI290MM
- Controller – ZWO ASIAir Pro
Acquisition
- 40 Light Images at 120 gain, 300s exposure
- 30 Dark Images
- 200 Bias Images
- No Flats
The Pacman Nebula. AKA NGC 281. AKA SH2-184. AKA IC 11. About 9500 light years away.
Who doesn’t love a classic video game. I like how a star is almost in good position to act as an eye.
Processing this image was pretty straight forward. I used DeepSkyStacker to stack the images. No flats here still. One day I’ll use flats but I seem to be doing ok without them at the moment. I think everyone that starts this hobby says that to themselves.
Then in Photoshop I did the following:
- Color Balance
- Curve adjustments
- Gradient correction using GradientXTerminator
- Saturation Boost
- Vibrance Boost
- Noise Reduction using Astronomy tool – Space Noise Reduction action
- Noise Reduction using Astronomy tool – Deep Space Noise Reduction action
- Sharpening
- Minimized stars in Photoshop
- Minimized stars using Astronomy tool – Make Stars Smaller action
Overall, I like how this image came out. I can clearly see Pacman in the nebula.