Space Yin-Yang - The Christmas Tree Nebula & IC2169

A mosaic I’ve been working on for a few weeks, but wanted to shoot now for at least 2 years.

 

This is a 2 panel mosaic with 4 individual frames - two for Ha and two for RGB. I didn’t get as much data as I’d like, but I’m just happy to have finally shot this region.

 

The dark nebulae creating the divide between the glowing red of the hydrogen alpha emission nebula and the faint reflection nebula.

 

Hopefully when I get a chance to shoot under dark skies I can get a lot more detail in the dust lanes and also the reflection nebula. This was shot under Bortle 5 skies with direct sodium vapour street lights in view.

 

Tech Details below:

 

- ZWO 533 cooled to -15, gain 100, offset 50

 

- Canon 70-200 2.8 IS II L with 1.4 III extender @ F5.6

 

- Astronomik 6nm Ha 2” filter

 

- ZWO EF filter drawer

 

- Skywatcher EQ6R Pro unguided

 

- N.I.N.A for capturing and planning of the mosaic, APP for stacking & processing.

 

This 2 panel mosaic was easier to produce than expected thanks to NINA’s awesome mosaic planner and super clean GUI. Also the square sensor of the ZWO 533 made it forgiving when coming to framing.

 

Ha - 7 hours of data comprising of 300s subs

 

RGB - 4 hours of data comprising of 180s subs

 

 

Done