Planetary Nebula NGC4361 - Adam Lundie - Eatons Hill Observatory

Planetary Nebula NGC4361

18-Apr-2018
Planetary Nebula NGC4361 thumbnail
Planetary Nebula NGC4361
NGC4361 is a planetary nebula with spiral arms similar to a galaxy. The star at the center of the nebula is shedding its outer layers while contracting to form a white dwarf.

Image Integration:

  • 34x 120s Luminance
  • 35x 240s Luminance
  • 36x 240s Red
  • 41x 240s Green
  • 40x 240s Blue

Total exposure 11 hours 56 minutes.

Hardware:

  • Celestron C11 EdgeHD
  • SkyWatcher EQ8 Pro Mount
  • QSI 683-ws8 Camera @ -15°C
  • Astronomik Luminance, Deep Sky RGB filters
  • Starlight Xpress Lodestar X2 Autoguider
  • Starlight Xpress Active Optics
  • Innovations Foresight On Axis Guider

Location:

  • Imaged over four nights, high humidity. Orange zone in Brisbane, Australia. (Bortle 7)

Software:

  • Planning & camera alignment with The SkyX Pro
  • Captured with AstroArt 6
  • Guiding with PHD2 + PHD_Dither
  • CCDInspector: Image analysis & rejection
  • CCDStack 2+: Calibrate, align, stack.
  • PixInsight: HDR combination, dynamic background extraction, deconvolution, noise reduction, histogram, curves, color calibration, local histogram equalization.

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