SN2009lb

SN2009lb: Supernova SN2009lb in the distant spiral galaxy UGC 2944 (PGC 14418). Note the many background galaxies. I suspect that many of the "stars" in this image are actually the cores of unresolved galaxies. The discovery magnitude of SN2009lb was 17.3, and I have not yet calculated this image.

Other Catalogs: UGC 2944 and PGC 14418
Right Ascension: 4h 4.6m
Declination: 33° 17'

Date: November 2009
Equipment:
Telescope: Meade 16" Schmidt Cassegrain with f6.3 reducer
Camera: SBIG ST-10XE
Guiding: Meade 5" refractor/DSI Pro/PHD

Exposure: L: 3x10 minutes RGB: 3x3 minutes each
Processing Notes: All data was captured using CCDSoft. The data was reduced and aligned in CCDStack. Individual colors were combined in Sigma Beta, and saved as 32bit FITs. RGB files were imported to AstroArt and color combined as R:G:B 1:1:1.5. A a log stretch of the color image was saved as a TIFF(view) file and imported into Photoshop. The L channel was imported directly into Photoshop with an arcsine stretch. Dim areas got a gaussian blur. The luminance was combined as the bottom layer, with a middle RGB "multiply" layer, and a top RGB "color" layer. The image was then flattened and final adjustments were made. In this case, a Carboni "remove color blotches" helped.
Scale: 1.01

Additional Comments: I didn't fix the stars on this one. This is somewhat of a "test" case to see the minimum number of files that can be used to get an image. Sigma Beta needs a minimum of 3 files, so this was three each in LRGB. The L files were 10 minutes, and the RGB were 3, so the entire image took less than an hour of open shutter. (However, note that the color filters must be re-focused when used after the clear filter, so the entire time was longer than one hour.)

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