The Fighting Dragons Of Cepheus

[Andy Elliott]

Here be dragons...

The area of night sky occupied by the constellation of Cepheus is home to a plethora of deep sky goodness. The area around 2 of Lynd’s nebulae, namely LBN552 and LDN1228, is no exception; the shapes made by the dust clouds are said to resemble fighting dragons, which has led to these objects being given their popular name of ‘The Fighting Dragons of Cepheus’. I’ll leave that to your imagination!

This is a 2-panel mosaic of the area; however, the diffuse nebulosity is much larger than what I have shown here, with each nebula stretching for several more fields-of-view in each direction. Towards the centre of the image is one of the relatively rare yellow / orange reflection nebulae; this one is designated as Cohen 129 (or RNO129).

The full res image can be found here: https://astrob.in/hq8jpd/0/

Gear: Esprit 100ED telescope; ASI2600MC OSC camera (no filters); EQ6R Pro mount
Acquisition: N.I.N.A (each panel approx 150 x 150s, 20 x 30s for the stars)
Processing: Pixinsight

 

[JimFox]

This is so cool Andy! You have given me an idea for something I need to add to my list. I really like all of the detail you got in this. And a Mosaic to boot!

 

[Andy Elliott]

This is so cool Andy! You have given me an idea for something I need to add to my list. I really like all of the detail you got in this. And a Mosaic to boot!

Thanks Jim. I had to crop it a bit more than I wanted as the panels weren't quite aligned. I think I could have done 4 panels and still not get it all.

 

[JimFox]

Thanks Jim. I had to crop it a bit more than I wanted as the panels weren't quite aligned. I think I could have done 4 panels and still not get it all.

That's something I need to work on, along with this dark nebulosity. I haven't ventured into that yet, though I do really enjoy images like this.

 

[Dan Moorehead]

Wonderful

 

[Mike Lewis]

Excellent - I posted a reply on your AB about it too. I asked over there but I'll also ask here - what gain setting were you shooting the 2600MC at on this? It is a very deep image with lots of wonderful details, truly loely.

ML

 

[Andy Elliott]

Excellent - I posted a reply on your AB about it too. I asked over there but I'll also ask here - what gain setting were you shooting the 2600MC at on this? It is a very deep image with lots of wonderful details, truly loely.

ML

Thanks Mike, sorry haven't gotten around to checking things on AB; I always use a Gain setting of 100 for my ASI2600MC. I'm in Bortle 3.

 

[Anubis1311]

I’m so jealous that I can’t shoot this from my location. You’ve done a great job here . I might have to play with some remote observatory data as I’ll never get the chance. Doesn’t quite feel the same as capturing it yourself though.

 

[Comet Hunter]

Nicely Done. Too low in the horizon for me to capture. Wonderful job.