A good start to 2022.....

[geoflewis]

A belated Happy New Year to everyone.

I've had a good start to the year, bagging a couple of targets, one new to me and one that I haven't imaged since my urban light polluted DSLR days several years ago when I lived in Surrey.

The first is an HaRGB image of Sh2-173 (Phantom of the Opera Nebula). The image comprises just under 5hrs Ha with just over 1hr each RGB, captured with my QSI583wsg-5 camera through my 4" TSAPO100Q over a couple on nights last week.

The 2nd image, captured over 2 nights this week, is my first return to IC405 (Flaming Star Nebulat) for several years. It's a tight squeeze in the FOV of my 4" APO set up, so I concentrated on the business end of the nebula, losing some of the nebula's tail. This is also an HaRGB image with a similar amount ouf RGB data as Sh2-173 and just over 3hrs Ha, using the same rig as for Sh2-173.

Both images were processed using split star techniques, but I opted to retain the busy star fields, with very litte star reduction, as I like what the rich, coloured stars bring to the images overall.

Thanks for looking, I hope that you enjoy them. Critique/comments always welcome.

Edited January 10, 2022 by geoflewis
4" not 40" APO (I wish....!!)