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Monday, December 9, 2024

Wizard Nebula, NGC 7380

 My new setup has a long focal length optics, Celestron EDGE 14", after years of shooting the wider field astronomical photos, it's very nice to dig in to the details of those cosmic wonders.

My new photo shows the Wizard nebula in Cepheus, I have shot this target many times with a various optical configurations. The combination of 14" telescope and large 12 micron pixels of my "new" second hand camera, Apogee Alta U9000M, delivers an optimal resolution to my seeing conditions (0.91 arcsecond/pixel). This makes possible to go very deep in relatively short cumulative exposure time, as can be seen in this photo. A dim background nebulosity stand out nicely after about six hours of H-alpha exposures. 

WIZARD OF CEPHEUS
Click for a full size photo, 2000x2000 pixels

A mapped color image from a light emitted by an ionized elements, 
sulfur=red, hydrogen=green and oxygen=blue



The Wizard, as I see it
Click for a full size photo, 2000x2000 pixels



INFO

NGC 7380, the Wizard Nebula, locates in constellation Cepheus at distance of about 8500 light years from us. The Nebula surrounds an open star cluster NGC 7380. Stars, gas, and dust has created a shape that appears to some like a fictional medieval sorcerer. The active star forming region spans about 100 light years, making it appear larger than the angular extent of the Moon. The Wizard Nebula can be located with a small telescope toward the constellation of the King of Aethiopia (Cepheus). 



WIZARD IN VISUAL COLORS
Click for a full size photo, 2000x2000 pixels

Visual color version from a light emitted by an ionized elements,
sulfur=red, hydrogen=red and oxygen=blue, this combination is very close to a natural color palette.




A starless version
Click for a full size photo, 2000x2000 pixels

Sometimes I'm publishing an experimental starless versions of my photos. It's easier to see the structure of the nebula when stars are not there. This is also a very useful technique, when hunting down some dim objects, like an old and diffused planetary nebula in a very dense starfield.


Technical details

Processing workflow

Image acquisition, MaximDL v5.07.
Stacked and calibrated in CCDStack2.
Deconvolution with a CCDStack2 Positive Constraint, 27 iterations, added at 50% weight
Color combine in PS CS3
Levels and curves in PS CS3.

Imaging optics, 
Celestron EDGE 14" with 0.7 Focal reducer

Mount, 
MesuMount Mark II

Cameras, 
Imaging camera Apogee Alta U9000M and Apogee seven slot filter wheel
Guider camera, Lodestar x 2 and SXV-AO Active Optics @ 5hz

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

Total exposure time 12h
H-alpha, 18 x 1200 s, binned 1x1 = 6 h
O-III,9x 1200 s, binned 2x2 = 3h 
S-II, 9 x 1200 s. binned 2x2 = 3h

A single, full scale, 20 min H-alpha exposure, Bin 1x1
 Click for a full size image.