NGC7380 Wizard Nebula SHOforaxx

The Wizard Nebula is an emission nebula that surrounds the open star cluster NGC 7380 in the constellation Cepheus. The nebula is known for its unique shape, resembling the appearance of a medieval sorcerer. The active star forming region lies at a distance of 7,200 light years from Earth and has an apparent magnitude of 7.2. It has a radius of 100 light years and occupies 25 arc minutes of the apparent sky. It has the designation Sh2-142 in the Sharpless catalog of H II regions.

 

Taken 23 June 2020 and 8,9,10 July 2020. Moon was minimal, early setting and low in the sky on these dates.

 

I was having trouble with movement in the optical train, now fixed with a better focuser, so framing not so good as I didn’t want to rotate the camera and filter wheel to one side. Will do next time around. Also, my focal length has walked during collimation so focus is not optimal and focal plane is tilted. Currently working on that issue to optimise the whole setup. Will invest in a Howie Glater laser collimator to help with that.

 

300s light frames totalling 8.6 hours SHO Narrowband, blended with a Foraxx pallet 50:50 mix using Pixelmath in Pixinsight.

 

Astromiks 36mm SHO 6nm Filters

30 x Darks, Flats (for each filter) and Dark Flats

ZWO ASI294MM Pro 120 gain, -10C

ZWO 7x36mm EFW

ZWO EAF

Stellalyra 8” Ritchey-Chrétien Carbon

HEQ6

ASIAIR Plus

Astro Pixel Processor

Pixinsight

Photoshop 2022

 

Done