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Gamma Cass Nebula - 8th/9th Oct

daz

By daz
in Imaging - Deep Sky

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daz

daz

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Was up at the Bedford School Observatory last night till nearly 10pm (would have been home earlier if it wasn't for roadworks! Grrr!!!)

Had already had the roof open, done the focus and mount alignment, so it was just a question of what to go for...

One of the alignment stars was Gamma Cass, and seeing as the scope was still trained on it, and the moon was rising, I thought why not do the neb!

Conditions were not great, sky was quite milky with high thin cloud and the moon, temperature dropped to about 2 degrees during the night, so the camera was running at around -18.

IC59 and IC63 are two gas clouds currently being blown away by Gamma Cass (mag 1.6 to mag 3), and lie approx 20' North of the star. They are primarily reflection nebula, with IC63 (the fan shaped one) responding well to Ha filters. IC59 appears blue in colour photographs due to light scatter - the same process that makes the sky blue here on earth.

Guiding Details:

SX Lodestar through WO66, 2 x binned, 1 second exposure

Imaging Details:

SXVF-H9 through ED80, Baader 7nm Ha filter in SX Filter wheel

Mount Details:

EQ6 with EQMOD and EQDIR

Software Details:

TheSky6 for planetarium, MaximDL for image acquisition and guiding, CCDCommander for sequence and mount control

Exposure Details:

57 x 300 seconds lights, 37 Flats (varying exposures), 10 300 second darks, 100 bias

Processing Details:

Maxim for calibration, alignment, stacking

CCD Sharp for deconvolution

PSCS4 for levels, curves, layer mask

NA for gentle noise reduction

post-12674-133877403794_thumb.jpg

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albedo0.39

albedo0.39

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Interesting thread.

First off, used to live in Bedford and had never considered there to be any sort of astro-community (how ill informed I was - there was no internet in my youth..) so it does seem funny to see a thread with "was at Bedford School Observatory..." Bedford School used to be a rival to my School - Bedford Modern... aahhh the Halcyon days of youth !

Anyhow.. Your image is haunting. Despite being in b/w, I think it looks stunning and love the way that light is seemingly shining on the top edge - Brilliant and for me, one of the best I have seen in a long while. :D

Thanks for posting

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daz

daz

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23 years strong BAS is now Steve, but the observatory only went in 2000.... Modern is still going strong AFAIK....

The top edge is taking the brunt of the energy from Gamma Cass and makes it glow wonderfully!

My wife said it looks like a ghost floating through the ether!!

Many thanks for the kind comments everyone!

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