NGC 6543 Cat's eye nebula in Draco

[patthehorse]

Taken over 3 nights in May. It's a HSO with RGB stars and LRGB 5sec, 30s, for the core. Totaling 7+hours. The subs are listed in detail on the Astrobin page. Processed in Pixinsight using HDR composistion to blend the different exposures together.
Probably not the best target for a Newtonian as the bright core gives out the unavoidable diffraction spike in the centre.
I used the Atik 314L+ and a 200p mounted on a AZ EQ6_GT.

[gljiva]

Hi patthehorse,

Not bad picture. I would like to see less aggressive version of processing.

[patthehorse]

I will reprocess this when I pluck up more courage  It's by far the hardest thing I've tried. In the end after several hours I had over 40 different things in PI, masks for this that and t'other. Still haven't managed to get the blown core down to the size of the 5s and 30s eye so it blends in with no saturated outer shell. I need to learn a better technique 1st. I haven't given up though.
Thanks for the comment.
Pat.

[patthehorse]

 Another reprocess the RGB stars look a tad better. The Nebula is Ha S+O( 40-60%) OIII. I don't know how but the core blended in a tad better in this version.