IC417 & NGC1931 - The spider & fly from last night

[gorann]

Last nigh was cloudless and virtually moonless but seeing was not great so my guiding was poor, ca 1.0 - 1.5 "/pixel. I was aiming at these neublae with my double Esprit rig. I collected RGB with Esprit 150 and ASI071, and managed to get 82 x 5 min (6.8 hours) before the obsy wall got in the way. Ha was collected with the Esprit 100 and ASI1600MM but after the flip around 22.00, the gain apparently got stuck at the very high setting I used for focusing, so while I took the dog for a last walk and then went to bed, it was just collecting blown out wite frames. So, I ended up with the 4 x 15 min Ha I had before the flip. I added this sparingly to the red channel. I should really get back to this object and collect more Ha and maybe Oiii. I had this problem with the ASI1600 before and assume it is a bug in the ASICAP software and I really should remember to restart the program after framing/focusing to be sure it has not happened.

Here is what is written for an APOD image of these nebulae: Will the spider ever catch the fly? Not if both are large emission nebulas toward the constellation of the Charioteer (Auriga). The spider-shaped gas cloud on the right is actually an emission nebula labelled IC 417, while the smaller fly-shaped cloud on the left is dubbed NGC 1931 and is both an emission nebula and a reflection nebula. About 10,000 light-years distant, both nebulas harbor young, open star clusters. For scale, the more compact NGC 1931 (Fly) is about 10 light-years across.

Comments most welcome. I know it is a bit soft due to the poor seeing.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited January 19, 2020 by gorann