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Saturday, March 26, 2016

A new photo, Sharpless 124, an emission nebula in constellation Cygnus



I shot the lights for this target at January 6. 2016 The data wasn't very good due to weak transparency and a poor seeing at the time. I got this processed just now and the result is much better, than I thought it might be.

There are very few photos and scientific information out of this rarely imaged target. It locates in constellation Cygnus at estimated distance of 8400 light years. Total exposure time for my photo is only seven hours. I will continue with this target at next Autumn, hopefully with better atmospheric conditions.

Sharpless 124, Sh2-124
Ra 21 38 17  Dec +50 19 48

The photo is in mapped colors from the light emitted by an ionized elements, 
red=sulfur, green=hydrogen and blue=oxygen.


Sharpless 124 in visual colors

Natural color composition from the emission of ionized elements, R=80%Hydrogen+20%Sulfur, G=100%Oxygen and B=85%Oxygen+15%Hydrogen to compensate otherwise missing H-beta emission. This composition is very close to a visual spectrum.


Sharpless 124, in H-alpha emission only


Technical details

Processing work flow

Image acquisition, MaxiDL v5.07.
Stacked and calibrated in CCDStack2.
Deconvolution with a CCDStack2 Positive Constraint, 21 iterations, added at 25% weight
Color combine in PS CS3
Levels and curves in PS CS3.

Imaging optics
Celestron Edge HD 1100 @ f7 with 0,7 focal reducer for Edge HD 1100 telescope

Mount
10-micron 1000

Cameras and filters
Imaging camera Apogee Alta U16 and Apogee seven slot filter wheel
Guider camera, Lodestar x2 and SXV-AOL

Astrodon filter, 5nm H-alpha
Astrodon filter, 3nm O-III
Astrodon filter, 3nm S-II

Exposure times
H-alpha, 15 x 1200s =5h
O-III, 3 x 1200s binned = 2h
S-II,  3 x 1200s binned = 2h
Total 7h

A single uncropped, calibrated and stretched 20 min. H-alpha frame as it comes from the camera

H-alpha data was binned 2x2




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