North America Nebula & Pelican Nebula : 6-panel mosaic (Paul Macklin)

North America Nebula & Pelican Nebula : 6-panel mosaic

This is a 6-panel mosaic project on the North America Nebula and Pelican Nebula in July and August 2024.

I imaged 6 x 2 hours in Ha/[OIII], and 6 x 3 hours in [SII]/Hb.

Here's my overall procedure:

Each mosaic panel (for each extracted channel):

Stack in AstroPixelProcessor like normal
in PixInsight:

Dynamic Crop in PixInsight
Gradient Correction in PixInsight (use automatic convergence)

Mosaic assembly in(for each extracted channel):

In AstroPixel Processor:

Analyze stars (2000 stars)
Mosaic registration (scale 1 to 10, dynamic distortion correction, mosaic mode)
Normalize (advanced)
Integrate (no LNC -- gradient correction in PI eliminates this step, MBB = 15%)

In PixInsight:

Dynamic Crop
Gradient Correction (use automatic convergence)

Assembly and processing (selected notes):

In AstroPixelProcessor:

Analyze stars (2000 is fine)
Register the Ha, Hb, [SII], and [OIII] mosaics (regular mode, scale 1 to 5, no dynamic distortion correction)
Normalize (advanced)
Save the frames
Combine RGB on the registered / normalized frames. Here's my formula:

Ha: x1 (R,G,B) = (100,100,1), L = 25
Hb: x1.75 (R,G,B) = (1,5,100), L = 0
[OIII]: x1.75 (R,G,B) = (1,5,100), L = 0
[SII]: x3 (R,G,B) = (100,2,1), L = 15

In PixInsight:

Dynamic Crop
BlurExterminator (sharpen stellar 0.5, sharpen nonstellar 1.0)
StarXTerminator, and StarReduction script

In AstroPixelProcessor:

Export to TIFF (I find their stretches and export good and easy compared to PI)

In Photoshop:

Adjust levels as needed
Adjust colors via Hue/Saturation (try to shift reds to redder, blues to bluer, adjust saturation on each as needed, etc.)
If any curve adjustment, typically linear contrast
NoiseXTerminator (denoise 50%, detail 25%)
Minimal Topaz DeNoise AI (remove noise 0-15%, enhanced sharpness 0-5%, severe noise profile)
Unsharp mask
Final curves, vibrance, etc.

In PixInsight:

If not yet done, StarXTerminator and Star Reduction script
Correct Magenta Stars script (as needed)

Any final tweaks as needed in Photoshop

Prints available at: https://mathcancer.darkroom.com/products/1552601

Final
Original
B
C

B

Description: Full resolution version ***large file***

Uploaded: ...

C

Description: Deadpool Nebula (not an official name, but it should be!)

Uploaded: ...

	Distinct awarded users	Total awarded images
Image of the day
Top picks
Top pick nominations

	Image of the day	Top pick	Top pick nominations	Total submitted
Deep sky
Solar system
Extremely wide field
Star trails
Northern lights
Noctilucent clouds
Landscape
Artificial satellite

	Image of the day	Top pick	Top pick nominations	Total submitted
Backyard
Traveller
Own remote observatory
Amateur hosting facility
Public amaeteur data
Professional, scientific grade data
Mix of multiple sources
Other
Unknown

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Status	Advanced success
Started	...
PixInsight job	2WRMONCFOFS7OUJDFQQDQJR2KX45FOER
PixInsight queue size	n/a
PixInsight stage	TASK_LOG

RA (center)	20h57m34s.94
RA (top/left)	21h07m40s.51
RA (top/right)	20h47m29s.78
RA (bottom/right)	20h48m04s.14
RA (bottom/left)	21h07m04s.87

Dec (center)	+44°19′01″.1
Dec (top/left)	+46°02′24″.4
Dec (top/right)	+46°02′28″.9
Dec (bottom/right)	+42°32′30″.8
Dec (bottom/left)	+42°32′27″.4

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