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Monday, September 17, 2012

First light for the Autumn season 2012, IC 1340




Finally the sky stayed open for couple of hours and I was able to capture some new photons for this imaging season. After a six months mandatory Summer pause, (I'm shooting from the latitude 65N) it feels like doing this at the first time.
For last couple of years, I have shot with camera lenses, Tokina AT-X 300mm f2.8 and Canon EF 200mm f1.8. 
This season will shoot with much longer focal length by using my old Meade LX200 GPS 12" telescope. 
I'm using the SXV-AO active optics unit with it and I have forced the f-number down to ~5 from original f10. (Focal reduction is done by "miss using " the Celestron f6.3 reducer.)

I'm a happy camper now!

IC 1340, Part of the Eastern Veil Nebula in Cygnus
RA: 20h56m 45.8s DE:+31 degrees07' 17"

IC 1340 in H-alpha light from emission of ionized Hydrogen.
(I'll need least three more hours for H-alpha light)

IC 1340 is part of the Veil Nebula, a supernova remnant in constellation Cygnus at distance of about 1470 light years. This is one of the more luminous areas in this SNR.  Image is B&W, since it shows only a light emitted by ionized Hydrogen. The shock front formed by the material ejected from giant explosion, the super nova, can be seen in this image.

There is only two hours of exposures integrated in this image. I'll need least three more hours for H-alpha and about a same amount for O-III and S-II to make a color composition out of this target.

Orientation image

Area of interest is marked as a white rectangle in this older wide field image above.

Technical details:

Processing work flow:
Image acquisition, MaxiDL v5.07.
Stacked and calibrated in CCDStack2.
Levels and curves in PS CS3.

Optics, Meade LX200 GPS 12" @ f5
Camera, QHY9
Guiding, SXV-AO, an active optics unit, and Lodestar guide camera
Image Scale, ~0,8 arc-seconds/pixel
Six 1200s exposures for H-alpha emission = 2h
(I'll need least three more hours for H-alpha light)






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