Fighting Dragons

I think this is, to date, the highest-quality image I have ever captured with the Seestar S30 Pro, thanks to an exceptional combination of high atmospheric transparency and very favorable seeing. I don't think I have ever achieved this level of detail and depth with the S30 Pro. It also made me think about how sky darkness alone, and therefore the Bortle class, does not fully describe the quality of an astronomical site. Atmospheric transparency is just as important: low aerosol content, humidity and atmospheric extinction allow more of the target's signal to reach the sensor while reducing scattering and loss of contrast. Under these conditions, even extremely faint structures can emerge much more clearly from the background. I'd like to explore this aspect further and better understand how sky darkness, transparency, atmospheric extinction and seeing individually affect the quality and depth of our astrophotographic data. A significant part of the data was acquired under moonlight.