The Witchhead Nebula is a very faint reflection Nebula, near the bright star Rigel in Orion. My existing camera needed to be binned 2x2 to pick up the faint detail, so this became a black and white version. The nebula is actual blue colored when captured in color. Equipment: Canon 550D (astro-modified, clear glass filter) Software Bisque MyT Mount Stellarvue SVQ100 Astrograph Refractor, 580mm @ f/5.8 Unguided Software: Pixinsight Commercial Version 1.8 Lightroom CC Light Frames: 14 x 300 secs, binned 2x2 (1 hr 10 mins) 2 x 240 secs (8 mins) Total 1 hr 18 mins Dark Frames: 10 x 300 secs (50 mins) Additional Frames: Bias - 30 No Flats From Wikipedia: IC 2118 (also known as Witch Head Nebula due to its shape), is an extremely faint reflection nebula believed to be an ancient supernova remnant or gas cloud illuminated by nearby supergiant star Rigel in Orion. It lies in the Eridanus constellation, about 900 light-years from Earth. The nature of the dust particles, reflecting blue light better than red, is a factor in giving the Witch Head its blue color.
The Flaming Star Nebula (IC405) is a relatively bright nebula in the constellation Auriga with both emission and reflection elements. It is estimated to be approximately 1,500 light years from Earth. This image uses a modified SHO palette in narrowband to represent the nebula, with extra RGB data collection to represent the stars in natural light. It is a first light image for a newly acquired QHY268M camera. Equipment: QHY268M Camera @ -5C and Gain:56 Offset:25 Software Bisque MyT Mount Stellarvue SVQ100 Astrograph Refractor, 580mm @ f/5.8 Antlia Pro Filters (3nm narrowband plus LRGB) Askar FMA180 Guidescope/ASI290MM Software: Pixinsight Commercial Version 1.8 Lightroom CC Photoshop CC N.I.N.A. Control Software Star XTerminator (Russell Croman) Noise XTerminator (Russell Croman) Light Frames: Ha - 56 x 480 secs ( 7 hrs 28 mins) OIII - 78 x 480 secs (10 hrs 48 mins) SII - 81 x 480 secs (10 hrs and 18 mins) Red: 28 x 30 secs 14 mins) Green: 27 x 30 secs (13 mins 30 secs) Blue: 28 x 30 secs (14 mins) 29 hrs 21 mins 30 secs total Dark Frames: 10 x 30 secs (5 mins) 10 x 480 secs (1 hr 20 mins) Bias Frames 60 No Flat Frames
The sun peeks out through mist and clouds right at sunrise. Taken from our Many Glacier Hotel 3rd floor balcony!
