2016 Nov. 18 ~ IC 1396 in the constellation Cepheus [WITH LABELS]

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Photographed at Algonquin Provincial Park, Ontario, Canada

(285 km by road north of Toronto)

* Temperature 11 degrees C.

 

Total exposure time: 15 minutes.

* 540 mm focal length telescope

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Description:

 

This is a large and quite faint emission nebula and star forming region over 100 light-years across, located about 2,400 light-years away in the constellation Cepheus. It is energized by the bright, bluish central multiple star. The very small Elephant’s Trunk nebula (IC 1396A) is inside the dark elongated globule just to the right of centre.

 

From one web site: "The brightest star (38,000 times brighter than the Sun) ... [at the lower left edge of the nebula] is mu Cephei. It is a red supergiant star with a diameter larger than the orbit of Saturn, some 2536 times the diameter of the Sun. It is one of the largest stars we know of. Also called Herschel’s Garnet Star, mu Cephei is a variable star that varies in magnitude from 3.4 to 5.1 over a period of approximately 730 days."

 

For a view of this same nebula made with a 200 mm lens on July 1 of this year, click here:

www.flickr.com/photos/97587627@N06/28078652915

 

For a version of this photo WITHOUT LABELS, click on your screen to the LEFT of the photo, or click here:

www.flickr.com/photos/97587627@N06/30787835700

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Technical information:

 

Nikon D810a camera body on Teleview 101is apochromatic refracting telescope, mounted on Astrophysics 1100GTO equatorial mount with a Kirk Enterprises ball head

 

Fifteen stacked frames; each frame:

540 mm focal length

ISO 6400; 1 minute exposure at f/5.4; unguided

(with LENR - long exposure noise reduction)

 

Subframes registered in RegiStar;

Stacked and processed in Photoshop CS6 (brightness, contrast, colour balance, levels)

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Done