Focal Pointe Observatory
Astrophotography by Bob Franke

Home
Recent Images
Galaxies
Nebulae
   Natural Color
   Narrow Band
   H-Alpha
Clusters
Comets
Solar System
Observatory
Equipment
My Freeware
Tips & Tricks
Published Images
Local Weather
Terrestrial

 

Send Email

 

 

 

 

 

 

LDN 673

 

Click the image for a half size uncropped view. (1676 x 1266 1.25 MB) 

Instrument

Takahashi FSQ-106ED @ f/5.0 (530 mm F.L.) Captured at 2.1 arcsec/pixel.  Shown at 4.2 and 5.88 arcsec/pixel.

Mount

Losmandy G11 with Gemini L4 v1.0

Camera

SBIG STF-8300M Self Guiding Package w/ mono ST-i, using Baader LRGB filters.

Acquisition Data

 6/24/2014 to 7/03/2014 Chino Valley, AZ... with CCDSoft & CCD Commander.

Exposure

Lum

336 min. (48 x 7 min.)  binned 1x1

Red

112 min. (16 x 7 min.)        "

Green

140 min. (20 x 7 min.)        "

Blue

168 min. (24 x 7 min.)        "

Software & Processing Notes

  • CCDSoft, CCDStack, PixInsight and Photoshop CS6.

  • No SDSS stars were available for color balancing, so a standard image-train color calibration was used, as determined by eXcalibrator v4.25, and then adjusted for altitude extinction.

  • CCDStack to calibrate, register, normalize, data reject, combine the sub exposures and to create the RGB image.

  • PixInsight for gradient removal and initial non-linear stretching.

  • PhotoShop for the LRGB combine and final touch-up.

  • Noiseware 5, a PhotoShop plug-in.

Comment

North is to the right.

Looking very much like a deadly virus, LDN 673 is located in the constellation Aquila. This dark nebula, at a distance of about 600 light years, is in a dark rift in the Milky Way that passes through the constellation. Expansive molecular clouds in the Aquila rift make the distant stars appear reddish, while the very dense LDN 673 nebula completely blocks the starlight.