THE FLAMING STAR NEBULA (IC405) & EMISSION NEBULA IC410
Click on image or Click Here to see full-resolution version (large file, ~13Mb) or medium-resolution version (~5Mb)
Want to see this nebula without so many stars? Click here for an experimental "fewer stars" version (~8Mb)
See below for an earlier attempt at imaging IC 405 and IC 410.
Image acquisition and processing details:
| Telescope: | Takahashi Epsilon 180, f/2.8 |
| Mount: | Astro-Physics AP1200 |
| Camera: | SBIG STL11000M cooled to -25C and -30C, external guiding with SBIG e-Finder and ST-402ME cooled to -20C. |
| Filters, Exposure Times: | Total exposure time = 14 hours 10 min. AstroDon Generation 2 Red=290 min, Green=320 min, and Blue=280 min (10 min subframes). AstroDon 3nm Hydrogen Alpha 240 min (12x20 min subs). Additional data was obtained but discarded. |
| Dates: | various 12/25/09 to 01/15/10. |
| Moon Phase: | various. |
| Location: | Xanadu Observatory, backyard roll-off in Tucson, AZ |
| Software: | CCDCommander, MaximDL, FocusMax, TheSky, CCDStack, Adobe Photoshop CS4, Noel Carboni's Astronomy Tools. |
| Notes: | Hydrogen Alpha data was used to enhance the contrast between the
nebula and background sky. It was mixed into the red channel, and
a very small amount into the blue channel. (Note that Hydrogen
alpha is in the red range of human vision, and Hydrogen beta would fall
into the blue range at a much weaker level). For the version with fewer stars, I used the Minimum Filter in Photoshop to remove them. This reduces overall resolution and also replaces valid data with interpolated information, but it provides a visually appealing result. |
EMISSION NEBULA IC410, STAR CLUSTER NGC 1893, AND "THE TADPOLES"
HaRGB image taken from the backyard (click on image for larger size):
Image acquisition and processing details:
| Telescope: | William Optics Zenithstar 105mm APO refractor, f/5.6 with 0.8 FR/FF. |
| Mount: | Celestron CGE, remotely controlled with NexRemote and TheSky Professional. |
| Camera: | SBIG ST-10XME cooled to -25C, internal guiding. All images binned 1x1. |
| Filters, Exposure Times: | AstroDon Hydrogen-Alpha 320 min (32x10 min), Red 150 min (15x10 min), Green 100 min (10x10 min), Blue 180 min (18x10 min). Additional data was obtained but discarded. |
| Dates (Universal Coordinated Time): | 18/19/20/21-Oct-2007 |
| Moon Phase: | 49% - 79% |
| Location: | Xanadu Observatory, poolside |
| Software: | CCDAutopilot, MaximDL, TheSky, FocusMax, PinPoint, CCDInspector, CCDStack, Adobe Photoshop |
| Notes: | Notice the 2 small "tadpole" structures within the nebula, near the middle of this image. These are areas of cool, dense gas and are roughly 10 light-years long, and have been formed by radiative pressure from the stars in the cluster. |
Here is an early narrowband version of the Flaming Star Nebula, taken with the 105mm refractor:
