Gathering of Winter Nebulae (IC405, IC410, IC417, NGC1931)
Characteristics:
Size: The
FOV shown here is approximately 3.9 x 3.9 degrees, at an image scale of
3.5"/pixel
RA (J2000): 5h 22m 44s
Dec (J2000): +33 degrees 24' 43"
Description:
The
constellation Auriga is host to a wide swath of Ha emission nebulae
visible during the winter in the Northern Hemisphere, including IC405
(Flaming Star Nebula), IC 410, IC 417, and NGC1931 shown above.
Also shown at the bottom edge, just to the right of center, is the star
cluster NGC1912. IC405 is the statuesque nebula located in the
upper left quadrant, IC410 is located in the upper right quadrant, and
IC417 is located in the lower right quadrant. Please check the
larger sized images in the links above (especially the cropped views)
for more detail. More
information about this interesting region, including the origin of the
star AE Auriga that is responsible for the blue reflection component of
IC405, can be found on Rob Gendler's
site as well as on the APOD site.
Photographic
Details:
Dates: January 14 and 15, 2012
Scope: Takahashi
FSQ106 at f5 on the Takahashi NJP
Mount
Autoguider: SBIG ST-402 with
60mm guidescope, focal length 227mm
Camera: Apogee U16M at -20C, with
7 position 50mm square filter wheel (Apogee FW50-7S)
Filters: Baader
Ha narrowband
filter; Baader RGB filters
Exposures: Ha, 4 hours; R, 3 hours;
G, 3 hours; B, 4 hours, all unbinned.
Total
exposure 14 hours. Ambient temperature was around 8 degrees F
during this imaging session (glad that I had automation software!)
Post-processing:
Calibrated, aligned and
stacked in Maxim, followed
by DDP
in ImagesPlus (IP). Further processing in Photoshop CS5
Please
note: Graphics on this website
may not be reproduced without author permission.
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