The Wizard Nebula using 8-Bit Data

As I mentioned to another Astrobin friend recently, learning to use a new camera, new camera control software, and new processing software all at the same time was a brilliant move on my part, NOT! I somehow reset camera to record in 8-bit rather than 16-bit so all of the 3.5 hours of data is bad or unusable. It took me two days to find out why it would not stack (error - no stars found), I posted on CloudyNights and it took a while before someone analyzed one of the sub-frames and discovered file format is 16-bit integer but the numbers only go from 0 to 255 (= 8 bit). I did manage to stack these without the flats. The SII looked like the stars were way over blown, the Ha looked OK, and the OIII looked like a dull gray hunk of wax with little specs of stars. With all that I decided I would process the Ha data so here it is - at least to get more practice with PI. I plan on re-doing this object this week if it clears up.

Also, I continue to use SGP for Plate-Solving and APT for capturing the images. This object was hard to locate as it is so dim it did not show up in live view or even the individual subframes using the APT software. APT has Plate-Solving too and it works well except it does not center the object on its own. That is you take reference image, press solve, and it solves the frame but does not adjust it to the object to the center like SGP which does it automatically. For easy to see objects like globular clusters it is no problem but for dim nebula it is nearly impossible. With my DSLR and BYEOS, the live view interface was exceptional and I was usually able see something of a nebula without viewing it in another program. Oh well. I took it face value the SGP centered on it as I was not sure of anything until I brought into PI and there it was dead on!

NGC 7380- Wizard Nebula-Ha
Location: Home Monroe, CT
Date: 8-16-18
Camera: ZWO ASI1600MM-Pro
Telescope: Orion ED80 80mm f/7.5 Apochromatic Refractor Telescope
Barlow: None
Focal Length: 600mm
f/7.5
Focal Reducer: Orion 0.8x Focal Reducer for Refractor Telescopes
Mount: Orion Sirius EQ
Filter Wheel: ZWO EFW 8x 1.25"
Filter: ZWO Ha
Autoguiding: QHY-5L-II-M attached to an Agena 50mm Guide Scope with Helical Focuser
Exposure: Ha 23 x 180s
Gain: 139
Offset 21
Temp: -1 C
Post Processing: PixInsight and Photoshop
https://kurtzeppetello.smugmug.com/