NGC 281 (a.k.a. Sh2-184)

NGC 281 is a large emission nebula approximately 9200 light-years away in the constellation of Cassiopeia. Located in its bounds is open cluster IC 1590 and several Bok globules - dark nebulae containing dense cosmic dust and gas where star formation may occur. Other names for this nebula is IC 11, Sh2-184, and informally known as the Pacman Nebula due to its resemblance to the video game character.


I have imaged this object a couple of other times, most recently a month ago but was never happy never with my results so I decided to give it a try with more Focal Length while also priming my Edge setup for galaxy season. I used the dual band IDAS NBZ filter for the nebulosity and the Optolong Luminosity filter for stars. I separated the colors and recombined using PixelMath to make an approximate HOO combination and this is the resulting palette.


The Bok globules really pop out well throughout the nebula and the edges of the nebula seem to cut through the darkness especially on the left side. Normally I am not overly joyed with the stars from the SCT but this time they came out better than expected. In part this is due to Russell Cromin and BlurXTerminator, in particular the new version and method discussed in an Adam Block video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nLyZGzT8T5c&t=738s).

Dates: 12-12-23, 12-13, 12-15, 1-2-24, 1-4 

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NGC 281 (a.k.a. Sh2-184)
Dates: 12-12-23, 12-13, 12-15, 1-2-24, 1-4 

Camera: ZWO ASI294MC-Pro
Telescope: Celestron EdgeHD 800
Barlow: None
Focal Length: 2032mm (native), 1400mm
F/10 (native), F/7
Focal Reducer: Celestron 0.7 Reducer Lens
Mount: Orion Atlas Pro
Filter Adaptor: ZWO Filter Drawer
Filter: Optolong Luminosity, IDAS NBZ
Focuser: ZWO EAF
Autoguiding: ASI120 Mini attached to an Orion ST80
Exposure: Lum 141 x 60, NBZ 157 x 180
Gain: 139
Offset 0
Temp: -20 C
Processing: Asiair app, PixInsight, Photoshop, BlurXT, NoiseXT, StarX, Bill's Colormasks, Dill's Stretching, Bill's Star Reduction, GraXpert

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