Heart of Auriga (IC 405 and IC 410) (Daniel Erickson)

Heart of Auriga (IC 405 and IC 410)

It's been since Oct 19 that we've been buried under clouds. Sure, there were a few nights that had a couple of clear hours, but those hours were accompanied by high winds and/or threats of rain or snow. Better to wait. It has been demoralizing, to say the least. Luckily, two nights ago it was clear and relatively calm, and although the moon was sitting right there illuminating all of the ideal targets for my little RedCat, I had to shoot!

In the end, I chose the Flaming Star and Tadpole Nebulae. They are fascinating structures and I'm sure were I in a better place I would write a long expository piece to entertain you, but sadly, I'm not in that place. Far from it. Rather than complain, however, I will say that it was glorious to be outside again, looking up for many hours along with the RedCat and marveling at all there is to behold.

The image itself is, in my opinion, lacking in several key respects. It's noisy and the stars are not up to my typical standard. My skills have degraded and post-processing was one headache after another as I struggled with my old notes, trying to recall how I used to do things. Still, I discovered a few new ways of doing things in the process of trying to remember the old, so there was an ultimate upside to the struggle. In the end, it is a credible image after so many months sitting on the bench...waiting...waiting...

I enjoyed my one night under the stars. The clouds are back now for a while, but that won't stop me from wishing for all of you clear skies! Having done this image, I'm hoping I'll be a bit more engaged with the community again. Thanks for dropping by and taking a look.

Pacific Northwest Astrophotographers
William Optics CAT Series
WO Redcat 51 Group
ZWO ASIAIR PRO USERS
The OSC Club (One Shot Camera)
AstroBin Platform open discussions community forum
ZWO ASI183/QHY183

	Distinct awarded users	Total awarded images
Image of the day
Top picks
Top pick nominations

	Image of the day	Top pick	Top pick nominations	Total submitted
Deep sky
Solar system
Extremely wide field
Star trails
Northern lights
Noctilucent clouds
Landscape

	Image of the day	Top pick	Top pick nominations	Total submitted
Backyard
Traveller
Own remote observatory
Amateur hosting facility
Public amaeteur data
Professional, scientific grade data
Mix of multiple sources
Other
Unknown

Submitted The date and time when you submitted this image for IOTD/TP consideration.	...
Views by Submitters (available since September 19th, 2023) Every image is assigned to 50% of available Submitters. In the event that at least 80% of them don't view the image before its time in the IOTD/TP process expires, it's assigned to the other 50% of Submitters and the process begins anew.
Promotions by Submitters When 3 distinct Submitters promote the image, it moves on to the next stage of the process: evaluation for Top Pick status. This requirement, in addition to anonymization of images and distribution to only a subset of them, prevents biases and ensures that the best images are selected.
Promotions by Reviewers When 3 distinct Reviewers promote the image, it moves on to the next stage of the process: evaluation for IOTD status.
Early dismissal Staff members have a lot of images to inspect on a daily basis, and they can dismiss images if they believe they don't meet the requirements for IOTD/TP selection. If an image is dismissed 5 times, it's removed from the process. This streamlines the process and ensures that any bias present in promotions could be overruled by other staff members.

Status	Advanced success
Started	...
Astrometry.net job	5497873
PixInsight job	25QAOEARUZP83GU8514OWVR2G1896OL9
PixInsight queue size	n/a
PixInsight stage	TASK_LOG

RA (center)	05h18m23s.13
RA (top/left)	05h24m34s.45
RA (top/right)	05h12m25s.96
RA (bottom/right)	05h12m19s.86
RA (bottom/left)	05h24m11s.73

Dec (center)	+33°51′17″.5
Dec (top/left)	+34°47′45″.6
Dec (top/right)	+34°51′40″.1
Dec (bottom/right)	+32°53′40″.0
Dec (bottom/left)	+32°49′54″.4

Image Index:

Contribution Index (beta):