California dreamin' on such a winter's day. I'm really excited for this target because after capturing it last season in a really widefield image, I finally had a chance to get up close and personal with it.

Located in the constellation of Perseus, NGC1499 is a large but visibly faint emission nebula. A disappointing target to observe visually because of its low surface brightness; for astrophotographers it is a desirable object to image. Its colloquial name the California Nebula comes from its resemblance to the state of California.

The California Nebula lies some 1500 light years away, in the direction of the outer Orion arm of our galaxy. This entire region of space is filled with galactic gas from which many massive and luminous stars have formed. The glowing portion of the nebula is about 100 light years in extent.

The brightest star in the image is Xi Persei, also known as Menkib. Menkib is one of the hottest and most massive stars visible to the naked eye, and is probably responsible for illuminating the nearby California Nebula (NGC 1499).

This image was shot with a narrowband filter that only captures wavelengths of light from Hydrogen alpha, Hydrogen beta, and Oxygen III. Usually my images do consist of the full spectrum of light (save for cutting out traditional light pollution) but this one is my first attempt at processing such a minimal spectrum - and it came with new ways to bring out the most detail in the photo. I have more to learn and more to discover with this process.

Gritty details:

Mount - Skywatcher EQ6-R Pro

Controller - ZWO ASIair

Polar Alignment - QHYCCD Polemaster

Telescope - Skywatcher 72ED Evostar refractor

Camera - Canon Rebel T5i (unmodified)

Filter - Altair Astro Tri-band OSC

Guide Scope - Skywatcher Evoguide 50ED

Guide Camera - ZWO ASI120MM mini

Lights - 96 x 300'

Darks - 40

Bias - 40

Flats - 40

Stacked in Deep Sky Stacker

Edited in Photoshop