The Swan Loop

1191274

Aug 9th, 2026

284

Resolution:: 5680x5770 px
File size:: 3833 KB

Photo description / processing

I tried processing it in the HOO palette, but nothing decent came out with the stars (though on individual frames the stars look fine). Maybe over time I'll figure out what and where I'm doing wrong—I just dimmed them as much as possible.

Technical information

Telescope/Lens: Samyang 135mm f/2.0 ED UMC
Camera: ZWO ASI 533MC Pro
Mount: Sky-Watcher star adventurer GTi
Guide Scope: svbony sv165
Guide Camera: zwo asi662mc
Software: DeepSkyStacer,pixinsight,PS

Location: Кичменгский Городок Вологодская область, Россия

Date taken: Aug 8th, 2026

Exposure

31 × 300″ · ISO/Gain: 100 · LAIDA dual band Ha OIII 7нм

Total exposure: 2 h 35 m

Photo versions

Updated

Cygnus Loop, Eastern Veil, Witch's Broom, Pickering's Triangle, Fishing Net

Sep 22nd, 2026

3 h 20 m

Veil, Cygnus Loop, Fishing Net

Sep 19th, 2026

3 h 20 m

I decided to shoot at aperture f/3.2. Stacking in Siril with drizzle, background extraction and denoising at 0.5 in GraXpert, photometric color calibration in PixInsight.

Cygnus Loop, Veil, Fisherman's Net

Sep 18th, 2026

6 h 0 m

The Cygnus Loop, the Veil, the Fisherman's Net.

Aug 15th, 2026

2 h 25 m

Finally figured out the stars — the whole problem was in the crooked stacking in DSS. In PixInsight I couldn't stack, so I had to learn Siril. For a long time I didn't understand why it gave a directory error until it hit me that I had to write out the full folder paths). It's worth noting that after getting the image in Siril, the scripts in PixInsight started working properly during processing. I don't know how to describe this excitement — turns out I was just messing around with nonsense before this).

Current photo

The Swan Loop

Aug 9th, 2026

2 h 35 m

The Cygnus Loop, the Veil, the Fisherman's Net.

Aug 5th, 2026

2 h 0 m

The stars are a real problem. I can't shake the feeling that something is wrong with the lens, or maybe it's just a lack of experience in processing.

Show changes

Comments

poppy8micro

The Cygnus Loop, the Veil, the Fisherman's Net.from 08/05/2026

Do you cut out stars during processing? Try splitting into channels and recombining them.

Aug 5th, 2026

NickolayReply to poppy8micro

The Cygnus Loop, the Veil, the Fisherman's Net.from 08/05/2026

Yes, StarNet in PixInsight plugin.
Can it be split and combined only in PixInsight or Siril? And what would that give. StarNet kind of grabs the background in tatters.

Aug 5th, 2026

poppy8microReply to Nickolay

The Cygnus Loop, the Veil, the Fisherman's Net.from 08/05/2026

If you split it in Siril and align the stars a bit better, it will gather them into clusters and remove the shift — there's a button for that in the alignment stacking section. Then, if you crop them a bit tighter, the background will be denser. If not, you can stretch between the stars using GHS and dim the stars either with StarNet or some other plugin.

Aug 5th, 2026

NickolayReply to poppy8micro

The Cygnus Loop, the Veil, the Fisherman's Net.from 08/05/2026

Understood, I'll dig into Siril. Thanks.

Aug 5th, 2026

oeswwwReply to Nickolay

The Cygnus Loop, the Veil, the Fisherman's Net.from 08/05/2026

Do you cut out the stars before stretching and then stretch them separately? In PixelMath, combine them: + . Substitute your own image names. Stretch the stars only slightly. Try a few stretches to find the right brightness so artifacts don't appear. And tell me how you stretch the stars.

Aug 6th, 2026

NickolayReply to oeswww

The Cygnus Loop, the Veil, the Fisherman's Net.from 08/05/2026

Yes, I remove the stars before stretching the histogram. After color calibration, I stretch them by eye and run them through morphology and deconvolution in PixInsight. In this case, those scripts were cranked to the maximum. Then I combine the image and the stars using screen blending in Photoshop.

Aug 6th, 2026

oeswwwReply to Nickolay

The Cygnus Loop, the Veil, the Fisherman's Net.from 08/05/2026

So the issue is most likely with the deconvolution. First, make sure the stretching is fine by reverting those changes. And if everything looks good, then you can play around with deconvolution. I also got some weird results with it in Siril and gave up on it, I just stretched the stars less instead.

Aug 6th, 2026

NickolayReply to oeswww

The Cygnus Loop, the Veil, the Fisherman's Net.from 08/05/2026

Let's give it a try.

Aug 6th, 2026

Pavel Korytov

The Cygnus Loop, the Veil, the Fisherman's Net.from 08/05/2026

Maybe one of the frames is out of focus? And for stacking, I liked the program ALS - Astro Live Stacker. https://als-app.org/

Aug 6th, 2026

NickolayReply to Pavel Korytov

The Cygnus Loop, the Veil, the Fisherman's Net.from 08/05/2026

Regarding the defocus, I'm not sure. I deleted a few frames that were overexposed, possibly due to clouds. There's a chance that a few low-quality frames made it into the stack. I'll gather a couple more hours of signal and shoot the stars through an IR cut filter, then re-stack. Thanks for the link, I'll check out what that program is.

Aug 6th, 2026

Oleg Novoselov

The Cygnus Loop, the Veil, the Fisherman's Net.from 08/15/2026

It remains to figure out what can be extracted from this, and whether you can provide the sum in 32 bits as a link.
Well, and probably we need to properly orient the object (mirror and rotate it).

Aug 15th, 2026

NickolayReply to Oleg Novoselov

The Cygnus Loop, the Veil, the Fisherman's Net.from 08/15/2026

In my excitement that I managed to stack it in Siril, I completely forgot about the geometry. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1X9A7D-T5a6wsT8f_KL8ou-wEkJbl6xJG/view?usp=sharing

Aug 15th, 2026

Oleg NovoselovReply to Nickolay

The Cygnus Loop, the Veil, the Fisherman's Net.from 08/15/2026

I'll try to process it over the weekend.

Aug 15th, 2026

NickolayReply to Oleg Novoselov

The Cygnus Loop, the Veil, the Fisherman's Net.from 08/15/2026

Thank you, I will be looking forward to it.

Aug 15th, 2026

NickolayReply to Oleg Novoselov

The Cygnus Loop, the Veil, the Fisherman's Net.from 08/15/2026

In my excitement that I managed to stack it in Siril, I completely forgot about the geometry. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1X9A7D-T5a6wsT8f_KL8ou-wEkJbl6xJG/view?usp=sharing

Here's also a link to the Elephant's Trunk — I did a better job with the material there and rejected the bad frames. https://drive.google.com/file/d/11-NK6I8sJuJDYd6bcX9-yFxNq0yU696l/view?usp=sharing

Aug 15th, 2026

Oleg NovoselovReply to Nickolay

The Cygnus Loop, the Veil, the Fisherman's Net.from 08/15/2026

Quickly https://cloud.mail.ru/public/kh1m/2EF9GXhEj
Also, you still have white nights there, which is why there's no oxygen.

Aug 15th, 2026

NickolayReply to Oleg Novoselov

The Cygnus Loop, the Veil, the Fisherman's Net.from 08/15/2026

Well, I really like it, thank you. What programs do you use?

Aug 15th, 2026

Oleg NovoselovReply to Nickolay

The Cygnus Loop, the Veil, the Fisherman's Net.from 08/15/2026

Pixom, at least the setup is good, there's no point in improving it at the moment.

Aug 15th, 2026

NickolayReply to Oleg Novoselov

The Cygnus Loop, the Veil, the Fisherman's Net.from 08/15/2026

Understood, thanks. I was starting to blame the optics due to my inexperience, but now I see the gear is fine, so I'll keep honing my skills.
It's a shame it's the darkest time now, but no weather is in sight, and when the sky clears, by Murphy's law the Moon will be up. Good luck to you, Oleg, and clear nights.

Aug 15th, 2026