The Rice Hat Nebula (SH2-224)

This is my humble attempt at imaging this tricky and faint supernova remnant in the constellation Auriga. I managed to get around 20 hours, but I feel like I could have done with 30 or 40 hours. I started imaging this in November 2024, but unfortunately the weather is not cooperating, so I have decided to conclude this project now.

 

This has proven to be a very tough target to extract signal from. I used a dualband filter (Optolong L-Ultimate 3nm Ha & Oiii), which worked well to get some signal. The individual subs didn't seem to show much of the nebula, and it was only after stacking and post-processing with PixInsight (GHS helped here), that I started to see the Rice Hat shape.

 

I used my William Optics FLT132 with FLAT8 0.72x reducer/flattener.

ZWO 2600MC Pro camera

Antlia ALP-T 5nm Ha & Oiii filter

Optolong L-Ultimate 3nm Ha & Oiii filter

ZWO AM5 mount with ASIAir Plus

 

Processed in PixInsight and Affinity Photo 2.

 

More integration and equipment details in Astrobin: app.astrobin.com/i/icb7kn

 

Thanks for looking and I hope you like it.

 

CS

Eduardo

Done