This is a first-time (for me) observation of this object. It caught my eye through nice images others had posted on Astrobin. At first I was only interested in the “thumb” shaped cloud in the upper part of the image, but then realized that this was part of a much bigger object that was more interesting when shown larger. I would like to have gone bigger still, but have been fighting less-than-optimal weather conditions. I’m looking forward to getting RGB for this so I can add some color. I think I’ve solved my USB communication problems by going back to an older USB-2 hub and cable. Inspection of the USB-3 setup suggests I may just have a poor connection, so I’ll test that a bit in the future. The combination of off-axis guider with no focal reducer and reducer on the imaging optics of the AT8IN is working reasonably well.
Date: 16 & 19 Nov 2016
Subject: Sh2-171
Scope: AT8IN+Antares 0.5x focal reducer
Filter: Baader Planetarium 7 nm Hα
Mount: EQ-6 (EQMOD)+PEC
Guiding: Orion TOAG +DSI Ic+PHD 2.6.2.4 (Win 10 ASCOM)
Camera: DSI IIc, no chiller CCD ~5 °C
Acquisition: Sequence Generator Pro 2.5.2.4 with Nebulosity 4.1.2 ASCOM camera driver (Win 10)
Exposure: 17+21x600 s
Stacking: Neb 4.1.2, bad pixel map, bias included, 33 flats, match histograms, trans+rot align, Nebulosity 1.5σ stack.
Processing: StarTools 1.4.316: Crop; Develop: ~75%; HDR
ptimize; Deconvolute: ~4.5 pix; Track: Smoothness 75%, 4.5 pix. Photoshop CS6 + Astronomy Tools: Photomerge; Levels; Astroframe.
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