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As I enter my 4th year of being an astrophotographer, I can finally tick this target off my list. I’ve imaged Barnard’s before but wasn’t satisfied with the result.

And so, it became the 1st target of #EveryNewMoon, an imaging project Cory (@theastroshake) and I started for 2016.

I’ll write more about the project in the next few weeks.

For now:
RGB – Canon 60Da
52 x 180 seconds
30 Darks
100 Bias
Integration time: 156 Min. 2h 36m

HA: 12 x 600 Seconds.
No darks or bias
Integration time: 120 min. 2h

Calibrated and Integrated in PixInsight
Total Integration time: 4h 36m

It was very difficult to work with such a rich star field. Shooting at 24mm meant millions of little pin-point stars. 2 Iterations of star reduction, and I’m scared that now the sky appears noisy. But in fact, it’s just the ridiculous amount of stars in the image!

Equipment:
Celestron Advance VX
Imaging Cameras:
Canon 60Da
Shot at 24mm, ISO800
QSI 683
Imaging Lens:
Canon 24-70 Lii F/2.8

Workflow:

RGB OSC Image off the Canon 60Da – PixInsight:

Dynamic Crop

DBE

Colour calibration

SCNR

Background neutralisation

Ha Image from the QSI CCD – PixInsight:

Dynamic Crop

DBE

Then proceeded with the following functions;

Red Channel Extracted

Pixel Math to combine HA and R

Pixel math to combine new Ha and R channel to the RGB with a boost factor

Background neutralisation

MMT to sharpen and reduce noise

MT

Colour saturation.

Sharpening.

Processing in PhotoShop:

Add vibrance, saturation, brightness and contrast.

Gradient edit for top left star colour.

Star reduction – failed – too many small stars – Started to look too granular

Processing in PI – MT final – Star reduction