SH2-119 The Clamshell Nebula

SH2-119 is an often overlooked nebula just east of the North American and Pelican nebula. It is quite a bit fainter, but also covered with masses of stars, which overwhelms the nebula itself. The large star at it’s centre is 68 A Cyg which resembles a pearl within the Clamshell.

 

Taken over four nights in August, comprising Sii, Ha and Oiii narrowband filters of 5 minute and 10 minute subframes totalling 10h hours, plus 30 minutes 30 second subs of RGB for the stars. A challenge to process, particularly with the mass of stars. I think this could really benefit with at least 12 to 15hrs total exposure but not much chance with the current run of cloudy weather. This particular SHO palette is from a quite complicated Pixelmath expression in Pixinsight that produces a reddy orange instead of yellow. Star reduction to reveal the nebula.

 

30 x Darks, Flats and Bias

Astromiks 50mm SHO 6nm Filters and RGB Filters

ZWO ASI6200MM Pro

ZWO 7x2" EFW

ZWO EAF

Williams Optics GT81 IV

Williams Optics 6A III Field Flattener 0.8

Williams Optics 50mm Uniguide guide scope

ZWO ASI 120MM-S

HEQ5 Pro Rowan

ASIAIR Pro

Astro Pixel Processor

Pixinsight

Photoshop 2021

Topaz DeNoise

Done