Scope: C8 f/5; Location: Del Mar CA;
23 Sept. 2004; Camera: ToUcam SC3
Exposure: 26 x 10 sec Luminance exposure with Baader IR Block Filter;
16 x 10 sec RGB exposures
Processing: All exposures captured in K3CCDTools. Alignment and stacking was done with Registax and saved as FITs. LRGB channels were co-registered in
Astroart. Luminance and Color channels were scaled and rough color balanced in
Astroart. Final LRGB combine was done in Photoshop using Luminance Layering (or LLRGB). Color
balancing and final touches were done in Photoshop. SGBNR (PixInsight LE) was used to smooth background noise on the luminance channel. Resized to approximately 800x600.
This image was an unguided exposure. This is one of the two Messier open clusters
in Scutum (along with M11). This is a summer Milky Way object that was
imaged late in the season and my last summer Milky Way object for 2004. Horizontal FOV is about
16'.