IC 2162 and Other Sharpless Objects

Part 1 - Hydrogen Alpha
This is the first step, imaging in Ha as the nearly full moon is out.  I managed to get 80 minutes on it and that was lucky given my limited field of view and dodging clouds.  Normally I would wait until I get color and finish the object but the weather has been so cloudy lately it may be a couple weeks.  I am back to using the modified T3i/600D rather than the monochrome ASI1600 so the 80 minutes falls short of an optimal amount of Ha data but beggars can't be choosers and it is better than nothing.  In addition I somehow took flats wrong it was dark and late) and they subtracted real data, I tried take them again but they still were not working so I stacked it in DSS without flats which added to the processing.  Not surprisingly, I had to do some "wacky" noise reduction - I think I invented stuff in PS.  I miss my the ASI1600...

Now about object or objects.  I became interested in this after seeing Gary Imm's very detailed recent image.  Although Stellarium only has IC 2162 listed it is actually a star forming region approximately 8000 light years away at the top edge of the Orion constellation, above Betelgeuse towards Gemini.  It is composed of 5 Sharpless HII emission objects; from left to right, Sh2-254 (large and diffuse), Sh2-257 (bright middle object), Sh2-256 (small and just above), Sh2-255 (brightest nebula a.k.a. IC 2162), and finally Sh2-258 (not visible in my image).

I like the structure of each of the three bright nebula and was happy it came out as the moon was bright and I was not sure how well I had the focus.  Focusing in Ha with a monochrome camera is much easier in APT.  Lastly, I did not crop it much as I was interested in some of the colorful
surrounding stars in some other Astrobin images of this but I will most likely crop the final image.

Part 2 - Color

I finally finished this a few days ago after several cloudy days.  I was able to capture a total of 110 x 90 second frames over three nights.  The RGB image had much less noise than did the Ha most likely due to more RGB frames.  Since the DSLR does star color really well and this field has many colorful stars, I focused on keeping them intact after getting the nebula looking respectable.  I did a 50% luminosity blend with Ha in PI and then another blend in PS followed by blending in the RGB star field. 

I pleased how this image turned out and as an added surprise, Sh2-258 is visible in the color image.  It is small but there.  The star field contains several colorful blue and yellow stars of all sizes.  The bright blue magnitude 6.65 star (HIP 29616 A) to the right of the nebula is listed as a double star while a bright yellow magnitude 6.35 star (HIP 29326) is on the left. 

Anyway, hope you enjoy my DSLR image, it certainly was interesting doing this again.  Fortunately my ASI1600 is back so I will be switching out the cameras now all that is needed is clear skies!

Ha

IC 2162 and Other Sharpless Objects Location: Home Monroe, CT
Date: 2-18-19
Camera: Canon T3i/600D modified
Telescope: Astro_Tech AT115EDT 115mm Refractor Telescope
Barlow: None
Focal Length: 805mm (FR 644mm)
f/7 (f/5.6)
Focal Reducer: Astro-Tech 0.8x Focal Reducer/Field Flattener for Refractor Telescopes
Mount: Orion Sirius
Filter Wheel: none
Filter: Astronomics 12 nm Ha Clip-in
Autoguiding: QHY-5L-II-M attached to an Agena 50mm Guide Scope with Helical Focuser
Exposure: 26 x 180
Gain/ISO: 800
Offset:
Temp: 0 C
Post Processing: PixInsight and Photoshop
https://kurtzeppetello.smugmug.com/
http://astroquest1.blogspot.com/

HaRGB Widefield

HaRGB Crop

IC 2162 and Other Sharpless Objects Location: Home Monroe, CT
Date: 2-21-19, 2-25-19, 2-26-19
Camera: Canon T3i/600D modified
Telescope: Astro_Tech AT115EDT 115mm Refractor Telescope
Barlow: None
Focal Length: 805mm (FR 644mm)
f/7 (f/5.6)
Focal Reducer: Astro-Tech 0.8x Focal Reducer/Field Flattener for Refractor Telescopes
Mount: Orion Sirius
Filter Wheel: none
Filter: Baader Neodymium Moon & Skyglo 2"
Autoguiding: QHY-5L-II-M attached to an Agena 50mm Guide Scope with Helical Focuser
Exposure: 110 x 90
Gain/ISO: 800
Offset:
Temp: 0 C
Post Processing: PixInsight and Photoshop
https://kurtzeppetello.smugmug.com/
http://astroquest1.blogspot.com/