The Teapot in Sagittarius

This is a 16 pane mosaic of the "Teapot", a famous asterism in the constellation Sagittarius.

I started this project early June from DARC. I didn't continue capturing data for it during the GSSP early July because at 41 degrees of latitude, this object was just way too low in the sky (not that it isn't at 36-38 degrees).

So it was only during my visit to Spain that I finished it during several visits to the Pinar de Araceli in the province of Granada.

Stitching the 16 panes for this mosaic turned out to be harder than what I had anticipated - and I've done a few mosaic to know what it takes. The good news is that the new GradientsMergeMosaic tool in PixInsight (which I didn't use for this mosaic) is just amazing, so stitching new mosaics should be much much easier regardless.

Also, the are of the Lagoon nebula wasn't in the plan originally, but I ended up deciding to add it, from the macromosaic I captured last year of the "From Rho Op to M16" area. The original framing only included the Teapot area and nothing else, but, although the framing may feel a bit unbalanced now, I feel the Lagoon gives some sense of position and reference that I personally like.

Here's a small version of the image with the asterism and most significant objects:

And here is the same but at a larger size.

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DATE August 15th, 2011 PHOTO Exposure: L: 4 x 5', RGB: 3x3' each, Total: 47 minutes Focal: 385mm, f/3.6

EQUIPMENT Imaging Scope: FSQ 106 EDX w/Reducer Camera: STL11k Guide Camera: StarShoot Autoguider Mount: EM-200 and EM-400

SITE & CONDITIONS DARC Observatory (California) and Pinar de Araceli (Spain) Seeing: Average Transparency: Very Good SOFTWARE Stacking: PixInsight Processing: PixInsight & Photoshop