The Polaris and Cepheus Flares and Surrounding Dust (Todd Stephens)

Celestial hemisphere: Northern · Constellation: Cepheus (Cep) · Contains: Part of the constellation Ursa Minor (UMi) · The constellation Cepheus (Cep) · The star Alderamin (αCep) · The star Alfirk (βCep) · The star Errai (γCep) · The star Garnet Star (μCep) · The star Polaris (αUMi) · The star δCep · The star εCep · The star ζCep · The star ηCep · The star ιCep

Image of the day 11/02/2021

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The Polaris and Cepheus Flares and Surrounding Dust

Image of the day 11/02/2021

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The Polaris and Cepheus Flares and Surrounding Dust

2-year project to make a widefield mosaic of the molecular cloud spanning the constellation Cepheus to Polaris.

I started this back in June 2020 with my Canon 600D, Rokinon 135mm f/2 lens, and Skyguider Pro. I swapped out the Skyguider Pro for an iExos-100 to aid in framing the individual panels and added a couple more rows and columns to each side of the 2020 project. Thanks to the longer nights, I was able to merge it with a previous image of the Polaris Flare.

Each panel was calibrated and stacked in APP, and then the final mosaic also assembled in APP. The software was giving me fits with the distortion around the pole, so I had to put it together in "chunks" and then piece these together. This could have been done in 24 panels, but with my poor alignment of some of the frames, it took several more.

Final processing was done with Starnet++ and GIMP. Downsized considerably to make the image file not horrendously large. I did not like the look of it as a JPG, so unfortunately I had to keep it as a PNG.

As always, C&C welcome and appreciated!

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Description: Just for fun, I made a nearly-starless version to really highlight the dust.

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Status	Advanced failed
Started	...
Astrometry.net job	5118421
PixInsight job	N0NZHDX1C868DTBIFP5FCQH9DP3814MA
PixInsight queue size	n/a
PixInsight stage	PLATE_SOLVING_IMAGE

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Image of the day 11/02/2021

The Polaris and Cepheus Flares and Surrounding Dust

Image of the day 11/02/2021

The Polaris and Cepheus Flares and Surrounding Dust

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Image of the day 11/02/2021

The Polaris and Cepheus Flares and Surrounding Dust

Image of the day 11/02/2021

The Polaris and Cepheus Flares and Surrounding Dust

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