ShahGazer Rambling about Astrophotography, Coding and Clouds

The morning of 14th May 2011 was pretty clear. After several days shrouded by haze, the sky at my observatory was promising this morning. My 10'x10' observatory footprint doesn't allow me to have a good spot for the shot. But at least the planets were pretty near the nearby mosque and have a photogenic look. I submitted this photo at Spaceweather.com and surprisingly was selected at the front page today . Thanks Dr. Tony Phillips of Spaceweather.com !

NGC 2467, an interesting nebula in Puppis. This image was captured last night when the moon was about 30 degrees away. The sky was pretty hazy during the time. And unfortunately my focus was slightly off. I wonder what went wrong with the focus because I already did a new v-curve set in FocusMax the night before. So I had to binned the final image. Combining LRGB was done in Maxim DL, while the final Levels and curves via PS CS3. Camera: QHY9 Mono with QHY Filter wheel (RGB) Telescope: SW Equinox 120ED Mount: EQ6 Pro with EQMOD Guiding: Orion 80mm and QHY5 Imaging Software: Maxim DL Processing Software: Maxim DL and PS3 Exposures: L: 6 x 100sec, R: 3 x 60sec, G: 3 x 60sec, B: 3 x 60sec Calibration: Old Flats (per color) and Darks Dither : 2 pixel per sub