Lots of Stars & Dust, Iris Nebula - NGC 7023 Region (2022)

NGC 7023 or the Iris Nebula is a favorite of mine and I wanted to redo this object as I just did this exactly one year ago with this very lens - the Canon EF 200mm f/2.8 II USM Lens. Last year's image was with the ZWO ASI294MC and was plagued with problems of my own doing and poor weather conditions. This time around I did it with my new portable setup and it performed really well. This image is infinitely better than my previous attempt, of course capturing photons from Bortle 5 skies has its own issues.

The portable rig consists of a ZWO ASI2600MC, Canon EF 200mm f/2.8L II USM Lens, ZWO Filter Drawer for Canon Lenses, ADM dovetail and rings, ZWO ASI120 guide camera, ZWO Mini guidescope, iOptron Skyguider Pro, Williams Optics Base, and an iOptron Tripod.

The region is heavily laden with interstellar dust as can be seen in the image. The characteristic blue color from NGC 7023 comes from the dust grains reflecting light from the bright central star. Also interesting is that polyaromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) have been detected within this nebula so it may be a good place to get some naphthalene (moth-balls). Located in the constellation Cepheus these molecular clouds are approximately 1,300 light-years away in a rich field of stars. Also in this widefield image is the Ghost Nebula, a.k.a. Sh2-136 (VdB 141), located in the upper middle region.

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Iris Nebula - NGC 7023
Dates: 5-28, 5-29
Camera: ZWO ASI2600MC-Pro
Telescope: Canon EF 200mm f/2.8L II USM Lens
Barlow: None
Focal Length: 200mm
f/4 with stepdown rings
Focal Reducer: None
Mount: iOptron SkyGuider Pro
Filter Wheel/Drawer: ZWO EOS Filter Drawer
Filter: Baader UV/IR
Focuser: None
Autoguiding: ASI120 Mini attached to a ZWO Mini 30/120mm Guidescope
Exposure: 156 x 120
Gain: 100
Offset 20
Sensor Temp: 0 C
Processing: NINA, PixInsight, Photoshop, StarXTerminator.

https://www.instagram.com/astroquest1/
http://astroquest1.blogspot.com/
https://www.astrobin.com/users/kurtzepp/collections/
http://youtube.com/c/AstroQuest1