IC 2118, Witch Head Nebula, OSC, 14 Nov 2015 (David Dearden)

IC 2118, Witch Head Nebula, OSC, 14 Nov 2015

I've never tried this object before because I didn't have the field of view needed and I felt it to be a difficult target. But the 90 mm Quantaray camera lens gives me the needed field of view so I decided to give the Witch Head a shot. I first synched on Rigel and used that bright star and surroundings to focus; focusing this lens is challenging. Then I did a PicGoto the target. With this orientation, Rigel is not in the field of view; I may want to try again with the camera in what I call the "zero" position, rotated 270° from this view, and include Rigel in the field. This was indeed a very difficult capture for me; even with 20 min. subs, the nebula is barely visible and required very heavy stretching. I wonder if the UHC-S filter would have been better, because contrast with the background sky is what is sorely needed here. But at least I got something.

Date: 14 Nov 2015

Subject: IC 2118, Witch Head Nebula

Scope: Quantaray 28-90 zoom lens at 90 mm, f 5.6

Filter: Baader Fringe Killer

Mount: CG-5 (Synta motors, PicGoto Simplificado)

Guiding: 9x50 mm finder/guider + DSI Ic + PHD 2.5.0.7 (Win 7 ASCOM)

Camera: DSI IIc, no chiller CCD 10 °C

Acquisition: Nebulosity 4.0.3, no dither

Exposure: 16x1200 s

Stacking: Neb 4, bad pixel map, bias included, 33 flats, match histograms, deBayer & square, trans+rot align, DSS 3x drizzle with σ = 1.75 κ-σ stacking.

Processing: StarTools 1.4.305 Crop; Wipe 75%; Develop 76.2%; HDR optimize; Color: scientific, 200%; Deconvolute 3.9 pix; Track 7.3 pix, Smoothness 88%; Magic: shrink 4 pixels. CS6 Astronomy Tools deep space noise reduction; increase star color; make stars smaller; enhance DSO & reduce stars; layer masked levels; liquify/pucker; Astroframe

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Status	Advanced failed
Started	...
Astrometry.net job	849707
PixInsight job	ILP6TPDJ9A7LB8QMGIWCEQNEA5I0QWRB
PixInsight queue size	n/a
PixInsight stage	PLATE_SOLVING_IMAGE

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IC 2118, Witch Head Nebula, OSC, 14 Nov 2015

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IC 2118, Witch Head Nebula, OSC, 14 Nov 2015

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