Symbiotic Star System R Aquarii - Adam Lundie - Eatons Hill Observatory

Symbiotic Star System R Aquarii

21-Sep-2017
Symbiotic Star System R Aquarii thumbnail
Symbiotic Star System R Aquarii
R Aquarii is a symbiotic star system where a white dwarf is drawing material from its binary red giant companion. The extra material is then ejected into space in loops and jets.

Image:

  • 22x 60s Luminance bin1x1
  • 36x 210s Luminance bin1x1
  • 70x 480s Luminance bin1x1
  • 8x 30s Red bin2x2
  • 10x 105s Red bin2x2
  • 20x 240s Red bin2x2
  • 9x 30s Green bin2x2
  • 9x 105s Green bin2x2
  • 21x 240s Green bin2x2
  • 10x 30s Blue bin2x2
  • 10x 105s Blue bin2x2
  • 18x 240s Blue bin2x2

Total exposure 16 hours 48 minutes.

Hardware:

  • Celestron C11 EdgeHD
  • SkyWatcher EQ8 Pro Mount
  • QSI 683-ws8 Camera @ -15°C
  • Astronomik Typ2 LRGB filters
  • Starlight Xpress Active Optics
  • Starlight Xpress Lodestar X2 Autoguider
  • Innovations Foresight On Axis Guider
  • Starlight Instruments Focus Boss II

Location:

  • Orange zone in Brisbane, Australia. (Bortle 7)
  • Imaged over 3 nights, new moon.

Software:

  • Planning & camera alignment with Aladin 9
  • Captured with AstroArt 6
  • Guiding with PHD2 + PHD_Dither
  • FocusLock live focusing
  • CCDInspector: Image analysis & rejection
  • CCDStack 2+: Calibrate, align, stack, deconvolution, remove gradients, combine RGB.
  • Photoshop CC: Create HDR combination, combine L+RGB, noise reduction, curves, adjust colour balance, saturation, crop.

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