NGC 2264 from Christmas night.

[Dunmunro]

An appropriate target for Christmas... but a bit tough to process due to the bright mag 4.5 star in the centre of the field, I should probably have used 60 or 120sec subs and will try to do this and make a comparison follow-up in the near future. The blue patch on the left of the field appears to be caused by an internal reflection in the optics.

A stack of 25 x 5min subs taken through my 10in F8 SCT on a CEM120 mount and an ASI071 Pro Camera. Acquired automatically via a script which automatically slewed to the object, plate solved an initial 5 sec exposure and then precisely centred the camera onto the target. The script then initiated full frame autoguiding and FF Autofocus (between each sub).

Processing History
01:28:54 White balance 4 -1 -1 -1 2 -1 -1 -1
01:28:28 DDP 95 20 0 50 50 0 0
01:26:33 Histogram stretch 65535 383 18214 -5 0
01:24:55 Deconvolution Richardson Lucy 20 2 90 25
01:22:07 Align RGB 100 1
01:21:38 Flip horizontal
( sigma sum stacking plus darks and flats)

[Dunmunro]

As above but I added another 21 subs taken after the mount flipped when past culmination.

In the first image below I used sigma-sum stacking and in the 2nd sigma only:

History
14:49:42 Multiscale Lowpass 100 0 0 70
14:47:47 DDP 95 20 0 50 50 0 0
14:46:13 Deconvolution Richardson Lucy 15 2 100 25
14:44:53 Flip horizontal
14:44:29 Histogram stretch 65535 3149 33934 -5 0

In this 2nd image I used sigma stacking only:
History
15:02:32 Flip horizontal
15:00:50 White balance 4 -1 -1 -1 2 -1 -1 -1
15:00:38 Multiscale Lowpass 70 0 0 90
14:58:49 DDP 95 20 0 50 50 0 0
14:58:08 Deconvolution Richardson Lucy 15 2 100 25
14:56:39 Histogram stretch 65535 68 738 -5 0

[Dunmunro]

I also imaged NGC 2264 using my CEM60 mounted 10in F5 OTA (F6.3 native but reduced to F5 via a Starizona LF SCT reducer):

46 x 5min subs for 3h50min integration time. As with the previous images this mount was auto centred via platesolving and FF Autoguided and FF Autofocus (after each sub) using a script:

viewtopic.php?f=5&t=725

This script allows me to select multiple targets each night per mount and both mounts then image autonomously!

Processing History:
13:17:14 White balance 4 -1 -1 -1 2 -1 -1 -1
13:15:08 Multiscale Lowpass 40 30 0 90
13:14:26 DDP 95 20 0 30 50 0 0
13:12:29 Align RGB 100 1
13:12:04 Deconvolution Richardson Lucy 20 2 100 25
13:08:56 Histogram stretch 65535 5420 46146 -4 0
13:07:43 Flip vertical
Sigma-Sum stacking with Flats and Darks

(This OTA has a defect causing the RGB flares on the bright stars)