NGC 1333

NGC 1333 is a reflection nebula approximately 1,000 light-years from Earth towards Perseus.  It lies at the edge of a large, star-forming molecular cloud which I really tried to bring out with my limited time imaging it.  The main part is dominated by bluish hues characteristic of starlight reflected by interstellar dust.  The dusty region shows hints of red emission from Herbig-Haro objects, jets and shocked glowing gas emanating from recently formed stars. These can be seen in the center of the image.  Research indicates NGC 1333 contains hundreds of stars less than a million years old, most still hidden from optical telescopes by the stardust.  Most of the stars appear to be orange-red but that is due in part to the molecular cloud obscuring the true colors.  Stellarium labels NGC-1333 as the Embryo Nebula but I have seen other objects labelled that as well.  Also located near the center of the image are dark nebula one of which is labelled B205 or LDN 1450.

I captured just over five hours on this but I must have spent at least double that amount of time under the not really clear skies of Southern Connecticut tried to collect data.  The weather has been horrible here and this is the first completed image in a month for me.  I have started another project as well and fortunately it is narrowband so I have more opportunities.  I kept it wide field because I especially like some of the dusty regions along the upper portion of the image.  The lower right has some very dense dusty regions as well.   I stretched the image as much as I could to bring out the dust but keep the noise down, in order to show more I would have needed more good data.  If you are doing this object I would recommend getting as much luminosity as possible - that is key.

Lastly, I decided to retire my 10-year old computer as it was slowing way down.  I purchased a Dell I5 Inspiron with a 256 GB SSD and 8 GB of RAM.  Overkill for running a telescope using APT or SGP for that matter as neither of these programs require a lot unlike processing software which do require a lot.  Surprisingly I get the hard stuff working, i.e. mount control, imaging, Plate-Solving, etc. everything works well EXCEPT the autoguider.  The problem appears to be the new QHY-5L-II-M driver.  PHD2 Works great on my old computer with an old version of the driver but the new does not work and I can't download the version from 4-years ago.  I read online forums and talked with people Highpoint and apparently bad QHY drivers are known thing.  Fortunately it is the right season to get a new guider so I requested a ZWO ASI120 for the replacement of the QHY.  It worked well but I think this is last QHY product for me. 

NGC 1333 - Embryo Nebula
Home Monroe, CT
Date: 11-22-19, 11-24-19, 11-30-19, 12-5-19
Camera: ZWO ASI1600MM-Pro
Telescope: Astro-Tech AT115EDT 115mm Refractor Telescope
Barlow: None
Focal Length: 805mm
f/7
Focal Reducer: Astro-Tech 0.8x Focal Reducer/Field Flattener for Refractor Telescopes
Mount: Orion Sirius
Filter Wheel: ZWO EFW 8x 1.25"
Filter: ZWO L, R, G, B
Focuser: ZWO EAF
Autoguiding: QHY-5L-II-M attached to an Agena 50mm Guide Scope with Helical Focuser
Exposure: L 113 x 90s, R 37 x 90s, L 15 x 90s, B38 x 90s
Gain: 139
Offset 21
Temp: -4 C
Post Processing: PixInsight, Photoshop
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