Celestial hemisphere:  Northern  ·  Constellation: Cepheus (Cep)  ·  Contains:  HD215835  ·  LBN 511  ·  NGC 7380  ·  PS Cep  ·  Sh2-142
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NGC 7380 The Wizard Nebula in SHO, George  Yendrey
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NGC 7380 The Wizard Nebula in SHO

Getting plate-solving status, please wait...
NGC 7380 The Wizard Nebula in SHO, George  Yendrey
Powered byPixInsight

NGC 7380 The Wizard Nebula in SHO

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Description

This is a Telescope Live dataset from the SPA-2 CMOS camera in Spain.  It is not one of their best results, as TL continues to have issues with some of the QHY 600 cameras/setup.  The Ha channel was fairly good, but the Sii and Oiii exhibited some pretty significant horizontal banding.  I worked on this in PixInsight and while I was able to mitigate to some extent, I was not able to completely remove it.  From the QHY support web site, this seems to be associated with either power or USB issues or just a bad camera.  The dataset was acquired in May of 2023; a dataset from that OTA/Camera that I acquired from July was worse.  I have not, as of yet, seen any more recent datasets to see if the issues have been resolved.

That aside, this is a problematic target for me.  I have attempted it twice with my own rig but the target is just too small in my FoV for much detail to be captured.  A 130 to 140mm OTA in the 900 to 1000mm focal length would be a minimum OTA to get some detail (the TL OTA in this instance is a 27.5" diameter, 5600MM f/l at f8, the QHY600 was binned 4x4).  Total integration time is approximately 5 hrs and 24 minutes, so not a deep look at this target.

I processed in PixInsight as a SHO palette.  I also used the Ha channel as a Lum Mask after the rest of the post process was complete to both mask and add as a Lum channel back into the SHO image for a bit more contrast/detail.  If the dataset had been better, I would have looked at some other palettes, particularly the OHS, but I didn't think the dataset warrented that sort of effort.  IMO - YMMV.

From WikiPedia:NGC 7380 is a young open cluster of stars in the northern circumpolar constellation of Cepheus, discovered by Caroline Herschel in 1787. The surrounding emission nebulosity is known colloquially as the Wizard Nebula, which spans an angle of 25. German-born astronomer William Herschel included his sister's discovery in his catalog, and labelled it H VIII.77. The nebula is known as S 142 in the 1959 Sharpless catalog (Sh2-142).  It is extremely difficult to observe visually, usually requiring very dark skies and an O-III filter. The NGC 7380 complex is located at a distance of approximately 8.5 kilolight-years from the Sun, in the Perseus Arm of the Milky Way.  The cluster spans ~20 light-years (6 pc) with an elongated shape and an extended tail.  Age estimates range from 4 to 11.9 million years. At the center of the cluster lies DH Cephei, a close, double-lined spectroscopic binary system consisting of two massive O-type stars. This pair are the primary ionizing source for the surrounding H II region, and are driving out the surrounding gas and dust while triggering star formation in the neighboring region. Of the variable stars that have been identified in the cluster, 14 have been identified as pre-main sequence stars while 17 are main sequence stars that are primarily B-type variables.

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NGC 7380 The Wizard Nebula in SHO, George  Yendrey