NGC 7023 or the Iris Nebula is a favorite of mine and only fitting it should be First Light for my ZWO ASI294MC connected to a Canon EF 200mm f/2.8L II USM Lens with the ZWO Filter Drawer for Canon Lenses. The region is heavily laden with interstellar dust as can be seen in the image. The characteristic blue color from NGC 7023 comes from the dust grains reflecting light from the bright central star. Also interesting is that polyaromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) have been detected within this nebula so it may be a good place to get some naphthalene (moth-balls).

Located in the constellation Cepheus these molecular clouds are approximately 1,300 light-years away in a rich field of stars. I had to do several rounds of star reduction and made processing a bit difficult. I consider this image satisfactory and would have needed to collect more data than the 2.65 hours to make it a noteworthy image. I pushed the dusty areas as much as I could but really could not go any further. I am happy with what I did get for the limited time and there is some detail in the core. Most of the stars appear yellow but a good portion of those are yellow because the light is being filtered by the gas and dust of the molecular cloud.

This was a test done over three nights plagued with problems. It was not only first light with the camera and adapter but also of my second imaging computer so I can run two rigs. This Canon 200mm Lens to ASI294 setup was an afterthought while I was waiting for the EdgeHD8 to arrive (which came last week). I used 90 second exposures as I have found this to be good value with unfiltered images from my yard. Although the lens can go to F/2.8,I have found F/3.5 to be a decent value for imaging. All of the data collected on the first night was lost because I had the gain set at zero rather than unity gain of 120. The second night I had data issues due to Microsoft OneDrive hijacking my computer trying to download while collecting images - I don't remember signing up for this but I uninstalled it and hopefully it stays gone. I also had trouble guiding, every time I turn on guiding it interferes with the imaging camera. I am pretty sure the PhD2 knows which camera is which but I had the issue with APT and NINA. Guiding works alone though. Fortunately with only a 200mm FL, guiding was not necessary so this image was made with 90 second exposures. However, I do have to get this solved guiding is critical for the the Edge.

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