Scope: C8 f/2.8; Location:
Del Mar CA; 26 Mar. 2005; Camera: ToUcam SC3
Exposure: 18 x 24 sec and 18 x 8 sec with Orion Skyglo for Luminance exposures;
16 x 12 sec R,G,B exposures.
Processing: All exposures captured in K3CCDTools 2. Alignment and stacking was done with Registax
3 and saved as FITs. LRGB channels were co-registered in IRIS. Luminance and Color channels were scaled and rough color balanced in
IRIS. The luminance exposures was constructed with the with the 24 sec
exposure as the base exposure; the 8 sec exposure was
combined to reduce star size on the brighter stars. LRGB channels were resized to 800x600. Final LRGB combine was done in Photoshop using Luminance Layering (or LLRGB). Color
balancing and final touches were done in Photoshop (Blue halo subtraction and
background noise subtraction). SGBNR (PixInsight LE) was used to smooth
remaining background on the luminance channel. Final image size is approximately 800x600.
This image was a guided exposure. NGC 2353 is a loose open cluster in a somewhat
rich star field that obscures the main cluster. The cluster consists of the
bluish grouping of stars in the center. Horizontal FOV is about 30'.
Image center is at Equatorial 2000: RA: 07h 14m 30s Dec: -10°15'57"