Sunday, January 21, 2018

Witch Head Nebula - Best I can do at my location.

Not hard to find a better image of the Witch Head Nebula.  Just look at any one else's.  I did learn that I need to head for darker locations when shooting dim reflection nebulae if they are less than 45 degrees looking south, at least with my equipment. Looking overhead my sky is a 5 on the Bortle light pollution index but looking south it is more like 8 given that Bridgeport is than 7 miles, Stamford is 25 miles, and Manhattan is 50 miles as the photon flies.  I thought I could get a better image since I have had pretty good luck with emission nebulae using the Astronomik UHC filter.  I did use the Baader Skyglow filter (UHC does not work well for reflection nebula) but this nebula is especially dim so I had no such luck.  So I had some fun turning up everything in order to see the nebula with all these wacky colors.   I feel defeated I could not get a better image but oh well, I thought the star field looked pretty cool.


NGC1909 - Witch Head Nebula
Location: Home Monroe, CT
Date: 1-18-18, 1-20-18
Camera: Canon EOS Rebel T3i(a), Backyard EOS
Telescope: Orion ED80 80mm f/7.5 Apochromatic Refractor Telescope
Barlow: None
Focal Length: 600mm
f/7.5
Focal Reducer: Orion 0.8x Focal Reducer for Refractor Telescopes
Mount: Orion Sirius EQ
Filter: Astrodon UV/IR, Baader Skyglow
Autoguiding: QHY-5L-II-M attached to an Agena 50mm Guide Scope with Helical Focuser
Exposure: 82 x 120s, 25 x 120s
ISO: 1600
Temp: -5 C, 4 C
Post Processing: Deep Sky Stacker, Photoshop, Astronomy Tools.
https://kurtzeppetello.smugmug.com/

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