Vdb123 Reflection nebula in Serpens

[Andy Elliott]

My project this Summer was to capture the faint reflection nebula vdb123 and associated dust of the Serpens Molecular. The FOV also incorporated SH2-68 (The Flaming Skull nebula).

Total integration time was 43 hours taken between May and July 2026

Full res image is here: https://app.astrobin.com/i/g1cc0k

 

[kiwiapple]

That's really beautiful--I love a good dark nebula, and having the Flaming Skull in the frame makes for a lovely composition. Well done!

 

[Andy Elliott]

That's really beautiful--I love a good dark nebula, and having the Flaming Skull in the frame makes for a lovely composition. Well done!

Thanks very much. It's an interesting target, but soooo faint, and that combined with the limited imaging time meant, the 43 hours was spread over 17 imaging sessions. So I resigned myself to the fact that this will be my sole imaging target over the Summer.

 

[JimFox]

Wow Andy!

What an awesome job here! Love what you captured, and if one was going to pick a project for the summer, this is one excellent one to pick!

 

[Comet Hunter]

Nicely done
what filters did you use?

 

[Andy Elliott]

Wow Andy!

What an awesome job here! Love what you captured, and if one was going to pick a project for the summer, this is one excellent one to pick!

Thanks Jim, I must admit, I quite liked concentrating on the one project. No pressure on trying to decide on what to shoot and when!

 

[Andy Elliott]

Nicely done
what filters did you use?

Thanks. No filters , all RGB with the OSC camera (ASI2600MC Pro). A lot of the sessions had some Moon interference but didn't really impact too much.

 

[Mike Lewis]

Andy,

This is very nice - the faint details really benefited from that long integration time. makes for a very compelling composition. I agree - putting in more time on a single target can be very rewarding, both from the results achieved and from the simplicity of setting up for each session.

ML