Mike Lewis
Staff Member
Here is a capture of the Blue Horsehead Nebula, that 'other' famous horse inspired nebula in the nothern sky. I have wanted to get this target for a while, but its large size and faint nature made that difficult. This is 4 panel mosaic, required to get the entire nebula framed with the telescope in use at my remote location in TX. Even from that location this target is low in the sky and dim, making it a challenging target.
The image is made from combining data from LRGB filters. with a total of over 25 hours of data used between the 4 panels.
The Blue Horsehead Nebula is a reflection nebula estimated to be at a distance of 420 ly distant in the constellation Scorpius. Much of the reflected light comes from the star at the eye of the horse called "Nu Scorpii". A second reflection nebula surrounding two stars is also visible to the right of the image, called IC 4601.
Equipment:
Poseidon-M Camera @ -5C and
Gain:125 Offset:25
Astro-Physics Mach2 Mount
Williams Optics Cat 91 Refractor, 448mm @ f/4.9
Antlia Pro Filters (3nm narrowband plus RGB)
Askar FMA180 Guide scope with ASI290MM
Software:
Pixinsight Commercial Version 1.9
Lightroom CC
Photoshop CC
N.I.N.A. Control Software
BlurXTerminator (Russell Croman)
StarXTerminator (Russell Croman)
NoiseXTerminator (Russell Croman)
Astro-Physics APCC and APPM
Light Frames (4 Frame Mosaic Totals):
Gain 125 / Offset 25
Luminance: 35 x 300 secs (2 hrs 55 mins)
Red: 37 x 120 secs (1 hr 14 mins)
Red: 38 x 600 secs (6 hrs 20 mins)
Green: 36 x 120 secs (1 hr 12 mins)
Green: 36 x 600 secs (6 hrs)
Blue: 35 x 120 secs (1 hr 10 mins)
Blue: 41 x 600 secs (6 hrs 50 mins)
25 hrs 41 mins total
The image is made from combining data from LRGB filters. with a total of over 25 hours of data used between the 4 panels.
The Blue Horsehead Nebula is a reflection nebula estimated to be at a distance of 420 ly distant in the constellation Scorpius. Much of the reflected light comes from the star at the eye of the horse called "Nu Scorpii". A second reflection nebula surrounding two stars is also visible to the right of the image, called IC 4601.
Equipment:
Poseidon-M Camera @ -5C and
Gain:125 Offset:25
Astro-Physics Mach2 Mount
Williams Optics Cat 91 Refractor, 448mm @ f/4.9
Antlia Pro Filters (3nm narrowband plus RGB)
Askar FMA180 Guide scope with ASI290MM
Software:
Pixinsight Commercial Version 1.9
Lightroom CC
Photoshop CC
N.I.N.A. Control Software
BlurXTerminator (Russell Croman)
StarXTerminator (Russell Croman)
NoiseXTerminator (Russell Croman)
Astro-Physics APCC and APPM
Light Frames (4 Frame Mosaic Totals):
Gain 125 / Offset 25
Luminance: 35 x 300 secs (2 hrs 55 mins)
Red: 37 x 120 secs (1 hr 14 mins)
Red: 38 x 600 secs (6 hrs 20 mins)
Green: 36 x 120 secs (1 hr 12 mins)
Green: 36 x 600 secs (6 hrs)
Blue: 35 x 120 secs (1 hr 10 mins)
Blue: 41 x 600 secs (6 hrs 50 mins)
25 hrs 41 mins total
