Deneb

Deneb in Cygnus photographed by Pete Lawrence: a blue-white supergiant in the Summer Triangle, up to 196,000 times brighter than the Sun.

Target details

Deneb is the brightest star in Cygnus, the swan, and marks one corner of the Summer Triangle. At magnitude 1.25 it's only the 19th brightest star in the night sky, but that modest ranking hides how powerful it is. Deneb is a blue-white supergiant, and although its distance is hard to pin down, it's thought to shine somewhere between 55,000 and 196,000 times brighter than the Sun – rivalling Rigel as the most luminous first-magnitude star.

Capture details

Data captured 12 October, 2018.

20x 15 second exposures with Red filter.
20x 15 second exposures with Green filter.
20x 15 second exposures with Blue filter.

Total Exposure: 15 minutes.

Equipment details

Skywatcher Quattro 200 CF
NEQ6 Pro
Atik 428EX Mono
Skywatcher ST-80
QHY5L-II

Processing details

This image was processed in Pixinsight & Lightroom.
Calibration and Stacking in Pixinsight.

Channel Combination - To create RGB image.
Dynamic Background Extraction - To Remove Gradients.
Photometric Color Calibration - To colour calibrate the image.
SCNR - To neutralise green.
Histogram Transformation - To stretch the image slightly with StarMask in place.
Histogram Transofrmation - To stretch the image.
Curves Transformation - To increase contrast.

Export as JPEG and import into Lightroom.
Enhance Contrast (+15)
Boost Aqua Saturation (+53)

Export final JPEG for upload