Cocoon Nebula IC5146 from Red Zone
I have previously imaged this emission/reflection nebula, which like the Rosette shows a circular red region around a cluster of young, hot stars. I had doubts however regarding capturing the dark nebula (Barnard 168) that forms a tail leading off to the west. I generally prefer using a color camera for simplicity but in this case tried a mono astrocam with LRGB filters, which successfully revealed the tail. Conditions in my yard were as good as they get, with my SQM-L meter reading 18.6 to 19.1 during the course of the evening -- still Red Zone (or typical light polluted suburb).
Tech Stuff: Borg 71FL at native 400mm focal length; IDAS LPS-D2 filter; Baader MPCC; QHY163M; 80 minutes of 8 second exposures (20 min each of L, R, G, B) stacked live in SharpCap Pro; iOptron CubePro 8200 mount guided with PHD2; Processed with PixInsight. Imaged from my yard 10 miles north of New York City.
Cocoon Nebula IC5146 from Red Zone
I have previously imaged this emission/reflection nebula, which like the Rosette shows a circular red region around a cluster of young, hot stars. I had doubts however regarding capturing the dark nebula (Barnard 168) that forms a tail leading off to the west. I generally prefer using a color camera for simplicity but in this case tried a mono astrocam with LRGB filters, which successfully revealed the tail. Conditions in my yard were as good as they get, with my SQM-L meter reading 18.6 to 19.1 during the course of the evening -- still Red Zone (or typical light polluted suburb).
Tech Stuff: Borg 71FL at native 400mm focal length; IDAS LPS-D2 filter; Baader MPCC; QHY163M; 80 minutes of 8 second exposures (20 min each of L, R, G, B) stacked live in SharpCap Pro; iOptron CubePro 8200 mount guided with PHD2; Processed with PixInsight. Imaged from my yard 10 miles north of New York City.