IC1396

This is IC1396, which is about 2400 light years away, located in the constellation Cepheus. The "Elephant's Trunk Nebula" is in the upper left quadrant of the nebula and is thought to be a site of star formation.

 

This is a false color composition using Ha(Ha+OIII)OIII. I like the orange/brown color around the outside. I thought that this composition showed the most detail for the data that I collected.

 

I started imaging this on 6/17 and didn't have a chance to finish it until 7/5 and 7/6. I used the best %80 of each night, totaling 10.5 hours. Each night was stacked individually, and the three resulting files where stacked again using averaging. I decided to stack with that method because the seeing conditions were not as good on 7/5 and 7/6 compared to 6/17. The haze was really detrimental to image quality. I was concerned that sigma stacking would have thrown out too much high quality data from the much better first night.

 

Astrobin: www.astrobin.com/k2nexw/

 

Total integration time: 10h 30minutes

 

Location: Southern Maryland, USA (Bortle 5-6)

Dates: 06/17/2021, 07/05/2021, 07/06/2021

 

==Gear==

Mount: SkyWatcher EQ6-R Pro

Imaging Telescope: William Optics Zenithstar 61 II APO

Field Flattener: William Optics Flat 61A

Imaging Camera: ZWO ASI 2600MC Pro

LP Filter: Optolong L-eNhance

Guide Scope: ZWO 30 mm f/4 Mini Guide Scope

Guide Camera: ZWO ASI120MM

Auto Focuser: ZWO EAF

 

==Acquisition==

Light Frames: 83x300" (6h 55') (gain: 100.00) -10C

43x300" (3h 35') (gain: 100.00) -5C

Dark Frames: 1 master frame (30 x 300s) -10C, 30 gain 100 -10C

33 x 300s gain 100 -5C

Bias Frames: 0

Flat Frames: 32 each night

Flat Darks: 32 each night

 

==Stacking==

DSS stacked(Kappa sigma) each night individually, 80% best

DSS Stacked average of nightly stacked output

 

==Processing==

StarTools:

Autodev, Crop, Wipe, Contrast, HDR, Sharpen, Deconvolution, Color, Tighten Stars, Dim stars, Super Structure, Noise reduction

 

Affinity Photo:

Levels, Curves

Done