Emission and Reflection Nebulae

Here's my go at Caldwell 20, the North America nebula or more specifically, the Cygnus Wall part of it. Seems to be a popular target this week! I captured data over two nights, 2 hours on 26/08/24 and 7 hours on 27/08/24. The first session was intermittent cloud so I didn't use any of it in the end. The second session was very clear all night long. While I was at it I did an All Sky Video of the night sky.

54 x 240 seconds Luminance, 17 x 240 seconds RGB. Stellarium, Pegasus Unity, CPWI, NINA, PHD2. Stacked and Processed in PixInsight. The colours are a little unexpected but the Photometric Colour Calibration Process seemed happy with it.

Cygnus Emission Nebula

NGC6914

Cygnus

19/07/24

34 x L, 10 x R, 8 x G, 8 x B all at 180seconds. Flats and Darks. 3 hours integration.

I tried the ASI1600MM on the back of the new Refractor. So I went for an LRGB of NGC6914 in Cygnus, a reflection nebula near Sadr in a large emission nebula intermingled with dark nebula too. Looks like one of the blue subs had a satellite trail that didn't get Winsorize Sigma clipped. I should probably blink and process them again. And I need to do the filter offsets again, the blues were not quite in focus. My guiding could have been better, I'm sure the AVX can do better! More tweaking and twiddling required!

The Butterfly of Sadr

Barnard 347

IC 1318

Cygnus

29/06/24

My Flat frames didn't give an even spread of light and caused the blue speckly blob in the centre. And the flats don't have appeared to have calibrated the Lights. The PI WBPP Script gave a warning about the Master Flat not being used. So I didn't spend too much time processing. Good to see the AVX tracking so well. I need an EAF but maybe I won't bother with a guide scope, I'll just get 500 x 30 second subs with a platesolve/recentre every half an hour!

Monkey Head Nebula

The Monkey Head Nebula 19/01/24

NGC2175

Orion

29/12/23

The Monkey Head Nebula is an H II Emission Nebula located in the constellation Orion surrounding the open star cluster Collinder 84. North is down.

My first LRGB image of 2024. Captured over 4 nights, the first 3 sessions ended prematurely due to -3°C temperatures causing equipment disconnections. After blinking out the guiding lost star dodgy frames I stacked 30 X L, 24 x R, 6 x G, 8 x B all at 3 minutes exposure. 3 hours 24 minutes integration.

NGC2175 is one of the January targets in TheSkySearchers.com Monthly Challenge.

The Fish Head Nebula

IC1795

14/10/23

The Fish Head is an Emission Nebula forming part of the larger Heart Nebula in Cassiopeia.

Captured in LRGB from 22:00 till my guiding packed up! The light wind had become a bit too gusty. 13 luminance frames, 6 red frames, 6 green frames and 5 blue frames all at 300 seconds. 2.5 hours total integration. Darks, Flats and Dark Flats.

Pickering's Triangle

Supernova Remanent

Cygnus

13/09/23

This is Pickering's Triangle, a cloud of heated and ionized gas and dust, part of the Veil Supernova remanent in Cygnus. I've named the files NGC6979, this is close by but is incorrect! This part of the remanent never made it into any of the main catalogues. Captured over three nights 09, 11 and 13 September, each night from astronomical dusk until the humidity topped 95%. L x 29, R x 12, G x 13, B x 13 at 5 minutes each. 5.5 hours integration, my longest ever! Captured with NINA/PHD2. Processed in Pixinsight.

The image won the TSS APOD award for 17/09/23

Soul Nebula

IC1848

25 x 360 seconds

SH2-199

Emission Nebula

Cassiopeia

09/08/22

Had to crop out the shadow of the OAG. And missed the target! IC1871 is at the bottom of the image.

Crescent Nebula

NGC 6888

Caldwell 27

Supervova Remnant

Cygnus

01/07/22

132 x 60 seconds

First session using the new ZWO OAG.

Crescent Nebula

NGC 6888

Caldwell 27

Supervova Remnant

Cygnus

20/06/22

18 x 240 seconds

Last time out using the 80mm guide scope.

Bubble Nebula

NGC 7635

Caldwell 11

H II Region Emission Nebula

Cassiopeia

25/02/22

45 x 300 seconds

Stopped when the neighbour's pear tree got in the way!

Fossil Footprint Nebula

NGC 1491

LBN 704

Bright Nebula

Perseus

27/01/22

40 x 240 seconds

A Stellerium find.

Flame Nebula

NGC 2024

SH2-277

Emission Nebula

Orion

26/02/21

20 x 420 seconds

Full Moon bleaching the detail out of the image.

Bubble Nebula

NGC 7635

Caldwell 11

Planetary Nebula

Vulpecula

29/07/22

This one was my favourite image for a while.

Iris Nebula

NGC 7023

Caldwell 4

Reflection Nebula

Cepheus

09/07/22

25 x 360 seconds

Best image to date! 3 hour imaging session. Good guiding at 0.58.

Cocoon Nebula

NGC 6960

Caldwell 19

Reflection/Emission Nebula

Cygnus

18/09/20

32 x 240 seconds

Very high humidity. Lots of hairdrier action.

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