LBN 777 - The Baby Eagle Nebula

LBN 777 is a dark and dusty reflection nebula and part of the Taurus Molecular Cloud located about 400 light years away. Molecular clouds are made of diffuse cosmic dust and molecular gas. It is also known as Baby Eagle or Vulture Head Nebula. It is close to the very bright and popular Pleiades Star Cluster (~ 4 degrees) which may be why LBN 777 is much less imaged. Nearby stars are responsible for illuminating this very impressive dense cloud. Gravitational attractions cause some of the parts to form into small dense parts known as bok globules. The friction leads to an increase in temperature and protostars are able to form. In this Nebula the more dense inner part is quite dark and cataloged as Barnard 207 - this is the region where it is presumed that new stars are born.

In addition to all of the nebulosity, I really like the colorful star field and also the 'small' galaxies scattered throughout. They show surprisingly good structure which was a pleasant surprise. For processing I used BTX, GHS, and NoiseX which are new additions to my routine. I still do most of the other stuff as well except for Topaz Denoise which I have cut back on - NoiseX seems to be doing a much better job. Capturing was pretty much a breeze since I was using the shed for this object so I just turned it on for the few hours that it was visible when the moon was not out and then just turned it off (it may have looked hard since it took 11 sessions over a 1.5 months). I could have gone to another but I already have too much stuff on the plate plus I still have a backlog of images that need processing, maybe when I retire I will be more efficient. One last thing, although I do some enhancement of the dust color, it is pretty much what is there so the dust has a more brown tint as does LBN 644 (Drunken Dragon Nebula), however, when I did LBN 644 a couple of months ago the natural color was more gray so I went with it. I just think it is kind of interesting how the dust appears.

 

Dates: 11-2, 19, 20, 21, 22, 28, 30, 12-1, 12, 13, 14, 18

LBN777 - The Baby Eagle Nebula (2023)
Dates: 11-2, 19, 20, 21, 22, 28, 30, 12-1, 12, 13, 14, 18
Camera: ZWO ASI1600MM-Pro
Telescope: Astro-Tech AT115EDT 115mm Refractor Telescope
Barlow: None
Focal Length: 805mm (644mm w/ FR)
f/7
Focal Reducer: 0.8x AstroTech Field Flatterner/Focal Reducer
Mount: Orion Sirius
Filter Wheel: ZWO EFW 8 x 1.25"
Filter: ZWO L, R, G, B
Focuser: ZWO EAF
Autoguiding: ASI120 Mini attached to an Agena 50mm Guide Scope/ZWO 60mm Guidescope
Exposure: L 384 x 120, R 141 x 90, G 145 x 90, B 135 x 90
Gain: 139
Offset 20
Sensor Temp: -10 C
Processing: NINA, PixInsight, Photoshop, BlurXTerminator, StarXTerminator, NoiseXTerminator.

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ARP 273 - Rose Galaxy

Arp 273, a.k.a. The Rose Galaxy is a pair of interacting galaxies located approximately 300 million light-years away in Andromeda. The galaxy on the top goes by UGC 1810 and is reportedly 5-times more massive than UGC 1813, the smaller galaxy. Both galaxies have a yellow core and blue heavily distorted arms. UGC 1813 has new star formation in the core whereas star formation in UGC 1810 is concentrated in the outer arms. The extraordinary interactions between these two galaxies is suspected to be the cause of the recent star birth, in fact it is believed that UGC 1813 passed through UGC 1810.

The bigger, the better for this object! The image seems to be widefield but I cropped it quite a bit already which indicates the Edge800 is near the lower size limit. I was happy with how the detail came out and a big part of that was BlurXTereminator (BTX). Everyone has been saying this is a "Gamechanger" and for the first time I agree. Unlike other sharpening programs that do sharpen well, the problem is they sharpen everything including noise so you have to do a lot of masking and creative blending, BTX sharpens the object but not the noise. Lastly, I really like the background as it is rich in colorful Milky Way stars and small galaxies.

ARP 273 - Rose Galaxy
Dates: 11-2, 11-3
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: Baader UV-IR
Focuser: ZWO EAF
Autoguiding: ASI120 Mini attached to an Orion ST80
Exposure: Baader UV-IR 238 x 90
Gain: 30
Offset 0
Temp: -10 C
Processing: Asiair app, PixInsight, Photoshop, StarXTerminator, NoiseXTerminator, BlurXTerminator, Topaz DeNoiseAI.

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LBN 762 - Drunken Dragon Nebula (2022)

LBN 762 also known as the Drunken Dragon Nebula is a bright reflection nebula in the constellation Aries. It was identified in 1950 by B. Lynds and was later determined to be part of a much larger molecular cloud by Magnani, Blitz and Mundy who cataloged it as MBM13. This region has a lot of gas and dust and is believed to be one of the closest stellar nurseries at approximately 1000 light-years. This is one of those times where you really have to have an imagination to see the 'Dragon' but it is probably better imagined as the 'Dragon Head', at any rate the nebula is quite stunning and rich in dust.

Some of my favorite the dust structures are the isolated vertical linear strands on the lower portion - they look like they are raining downward. In addition to the nebula there are a number of galaxies showing spiral structure throughout the FOV.

LBN762 - Drunken Dragon Nebula (2022)
Dates: 10-27, 10-29, 11-1, 11-2
Camera: ZWO ASI1600MM-Pro
Telescope: Astro-Tech AT115EDT 115mm Refractor Telescope
Barlow: None
Focal Length: 805mm (644mm w/ FR)
f/7
Focal Reducer: 0.8x AstroTech Field Flatterner/Focal Reducer
Mount: Orion Sirius
Filter Wheel: ZWO EFW 8 x 1.25"
Filter: ZWO L, R, G, B
Focuser: ZWO EAF
Autoguiding: ASI120 Mini attached to an Agena 50mm Guide Scope/ZWO 60mm Guidescope
Exposure: L 181 x 120, R 39 x 120, G 25 x 120, B 40 x 120
Gain: 139
Offset 20
Sensor Temp: -10 C
Processing: NINA, PixInsight, Photoshop, Topaz DeNoiseAI, StarXTerminator, NoiseXTerminator.

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NGC 7331 & NGC 7331 Galaxy Group (2022)

The showcase galaxy in this image is NGC 7331 or Caldwell 30. It is a large unbarred spiral galaxy approximately 40 million light-years away in the constellation Pegasus. Four other galaxies, NGC 7335, 7336, 7337, and 7340 along with NGC 7331 make up what is known as the NGC 7331 Galaxy Group, however, these other galaxies are not interacting with NGC 7331 as they are much more distant at 300-350 million LY away. Its size is similar to the Milky Way but it is not considered to be a true twin since it is unbarred unlike the Milky Way. Also interesting is that the central bulge rotates in the opposite direction as the rest of the disk.

I have imaged this in the past with my smaller AT115 refractor and this is a much better version as I was able to get more detail. There are much better versions of this out there and I was hoping this would be better but given my equipment and conditions this is it. It turned out to be a processing marathon mainly due to the stars. It is well known the SCT stars, all things being equal, are not as good as refractor stars and if something is not quite right the issue is magnified. A couple of nights the seeing and transparency were subpar and focusing was fair at best. I believe the collimation is good but I am not convinced my corrector plate is perfectly aligned with the primary mirror as my stars have never been really good. In addition, I cropped this down about two-thirds so the stars were highly bloated and misshapen. I did my normal star reduction but did not want to do any more since it removes stars altogether.

I tried fixing them using various methods PI and PS that I found on the web but none of them worked so this led to me inventing a new method. In a nutshell I did the following:

1) used the 'Select Bright Stars' from the Astronomy Tools PS Plugin and then expanded the pixels to 2 and feathered it by 2 (these were round).

2) copied the stars as a layer to a starless version (made in PixInsight).

3) merged this new version with the original version and then carefully erased the 'bad' stars which were replaced by the new 'good' stars.

-This method is very tedious and time-consuming and is probably considered cheating but it worked.

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NGC 7331 & NGC 7331 Galaxy Group (2022)
Dates: 10-27, 10-29, 11-1
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: Baader UV-IR
Focuser: ZWO EAF
Autoguiding: ASI120 Mini attached to an Orion ST80
Exposure: Baader UV-IR 292 x 90
Gain: 139
Offset 0
Temp: -10 C
Processing: Asiair app, PixInsight, Photoshop, StarXTerminator, Topaz DeNoiseAI, NoiseXTerminator.

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LBN644 - Dusty Region in Pisces

The dusty nebula, LBN644, is near another dusty nebula I did last year, in fact, Göran Nilsson did an excellent job capturing both nebulae in the same FOV with his wider field dual RASA set up. This object is located in the constellation Pisces and is part of a larger structure known as the MBM 3 molecular cloud. Information is sparse for this object however I did find a distance estimate of 807 to 858 light-years from Jim Thommes website (http://www.jthommes.com/Astro/LBN639.htm). Several galaxies which are over 500 million light-years away are visible in this image as well as some quasars. This is sort of a debut as Goran's widefield shot is the only other image of LBN644 currently on Astrobin.

I really love capturing these types of dark nebulae but the Bortle 5.5 skies of southern Connecticut are not ideal for this. One thing you can do to lessen the effect is take a lot of exposure which is what I did here. The stars came out really sharp and colorful which I am happy with. There is a lot of other 'stuff' in this field such as galaxies and what looks like a planetary nebula almost in the center of the image. You have to look closely to see some of these - not that I am advocating you to pixel peep.

Dates: 10-14, 10-15, 10-18, 10-19, 10-20, 10-21

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LBN644 - Dusty Region in Pisces (2022)
Dates: 10-14, 10-15, 10-18, 10-19, 10-20, 10-21
Camera: ZWO ASI1600MM-Pro
Telescope: Astro-Tech AT115EDT 115mm Refractor Telescope
Barlow: None
Focal Length: 805mm (644mm w/ FR)
f/7
Focal Reducer: 0.8x AstroTech Field Flatterner/Focal Reducer
Mount: Orion Sirius
Filter Wheel: ZWO EFW 8 x 1.25"
Filter: ZWO L, R, G, B
Focuser: ZWO EAF
Autoguiding: ASI120 Mini attached to an Agena 50mm Guide Scope/ZWO 60mm Guidescope
Exposure:
Plane1 - L 348 x 90, R 105 x 90, G 77 x 90, B 78 x 90
Gain: 139
Offset 20
Sensor Temp: -10 C
Processing: NINA, PixInsight, Photoshop, Topaz DeNoiseAI, StarXTerminator, NoiseXTerminator.

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LBN 437 portion of SH2-126

LBN 437 is a nebula complex located approximately 1200 light-years away in the constellation Lacerta. I call it a complex because it consists of two different types of nebulae, one being a molecular cloud of dust and the second being hydrogen gas. The molecular cloud is actually LBN 437 and the hydrogen gas is part of a much larger emission nebula (approximately 7 degrees) designated as SH2-126.

My FOV was only a couple of hours per night so I imaged every opportunity I had in October which worked out to 14 nights.

I have looked at several versions that other people have taken of this nebula and noticed there is quite a variation in how they look, much more than in other objects. I believe the reason for this is because they are completely different types of nebulae and require different methods for enhancing them which often interfere with each other. Try to bring out the Ha and the masks of the molecular dust and visa versa. Because of this it wound up being one of the most difficult objects I have had to process. I did a bit of star reduction but kept it at a minimum because I really like the star field.

LBN 437 portion of SH2-126 (2022)

Dates: 10-8, 10-9, 10-11, 10-14, 10-15, 10-16, 10-18, 10-19, 10-20, 10-21, 10-27, 10-27, 10-29, 11-1
Camera: ZWO ASI1600MM-Pro
Telescope: Astro-Tech AT115EDT 115mm Refractor Telescope
Barlow: None
Focal Length: 805mm (644mm w/ FR)
f/7
Focal Reducer: 0.8x AstroTech Field Flatterner/Focal Reducer
Mount: Orion Sirius
Filter Wheel: ZWO EFW 8 x 1.25"
Filter: ZWO Ha, R, G, B
Focuser: ZWO EAF
Autoguiding: ASI120 Mini attached to an Agena 50mm Guide Scope/ZWO 60mm Guidescope
Exposure:
Plane1 - Ha 99 x 300, R 75 x 90, G 74 x 90, B 64 x 90
Gain: 139
Offset 20
Sensor Temp: -10 C
Processing: NINA, PixInsight, Photoshop, Topaz DeNoiseAI, StarXTerminator, NoiseXTerminator.

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Sh2-157 Lobster Claw Region - Includes NGC 7538, NGC 7635, M52, and Sh2-155 to name a few!

The Lobster Claw (Sh2-152), Cave (Sh2-152), Northern Lagoon (NGC 7538), Bubble (7635), and M52 all in the same field of view. How cool is that! This region of space on the border of Cassiopeia and Cepheus is loaded with gas dust and stars. I have listed the popular deep sky objects but many more small bright emission nebulae and dark nebulae are found in this image. I have imaged some of these such as M52, the Bubble Nebula, and the Cave Nebula individually before but this is the first for the Lobster Claw and Northern Lagoon. The Lobster Claw is a bright emission nebula located about ~11,000 light-years away in Cassiopeia where as the Bubble and Cave are closer at ~7100 and ~2400 ly away respectively.

All in all, I am quite pleased with the result and it took forever to process as I did a few new processing techniques which I will start incorporating into my routine, hopefully it will speed up. Although the processed image here was made from 15.9 hrs. of total exposure with the NBZ filter, I actually captured ~37 hours (449 x 300s) of data. You might think I am depressed about trashing ~20 hrs., but I began capturing this when the moon was out and was prepared to make an image with just that data. However, after I finished the first ~20 hrs. with the moon out, the clear weather returned when the moon went away so I started collecting again and the raw exposures looked noticeably better. The average ADU (brightness) was much lower without the moon. When I used the subframe selector in PI it was clear that frames without the moon were much superior. For example, the maximum number of stars detected was 2000 when the moon was out, meanwhile without the moon 5000 - 9000 stars were detected. One of the reasons for collecting so much data is so you can select the best that is possible so by that standard, not using the inferior data was a success.

So the new processing stuff was thanks to Mike Cranfield and Jerryyyyy, Bill Blanshan, Russell Croman. First I used Generalised Hyperbolic Stretch (GHS) which is a PixInsight script by Mike Cranfield which among other things can bring out faint detail much better than other methods I have used before. I also used Bill Blashan's Star Reduction and Color Masks Processes for PI. Lastly, I used NoiseXTerminator from Russall Cromin. I have been using Topaz Denoise but this seems to give a better reduction across the entire image. Topaz still works wonders though so I may use it as a secondary reduction in Photoshop.

  

Sh2-157 Lobster Claw Region - Includes NGC 7538, NGC 7635, M52, and Sh2-155!

Dates: 10-9-22, 10-10-22, 10-11-22, 10-12-22, 10-15-22, 10-16-22, 10-17-22, 10-19-22, 10-20-22, 10-21-22
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: Orion Atlas Pro
Filter Wheel/Drawer: ZWO EOS Filter Drawer
Filter: IDAS Nebula Booster NBZ Filter
Focuser: None
Autoguiding: ASI120 Mini attached to a ZWO Mini 30/120mm Guidescope
Exposure: 191 x 300
Gain: 100
Sensor Temp: -10 C
Processing: ASIAIR Pro, PixInsight, Photoshop, StarXTerminator, NoiseXTerminator, GHS.
Power: BINZET AC to DC 12V 10A 120W Power Supply

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