A Seasonal Witches Head Nebula

[laser_jock99]

Another image from last week- The Witches Head Nebula IC2118 in Eridanus. Anyone who has tried to image this object will apreciate how tough it can be to aquire. Rather faint but very close to Rigel (7th brightest star in sky) the area is also awash with geostationary satelites that drift slowly across the field of view. My attempt shows a couple of these satelites plus a nasty diffraction artifact from Rigel just off to the right out of the FOV. I have had to push the image processing hard just to show anything of the nebula.

IC2118 Eridanus 600+600+180s, GSO F4 Newtonian (working at F2.9), Fuji IS Pro DSLR @ ISO2000, dark sky site in Mid Wales

[ollypenrice]

Well done and, yes, the sats are a royal pain. Lots of subs and a really good Sigma Clip routine (eg AstroArt 5) will zap the blighters.

Olly