Having shot both the Iris and the Ghost Nebulas with the long FL scope, I had no idea they were so close together. This was my Summer target for nights spent camping at the dark site. I had several niggling little equipment issues to work out (don't we always?), while smoke and wind also slowed my progress. But I did manage 4 mostly usable nights. During summer here in the Pacific Northwest, the astronomical night can be as short at 2 hours 45 minutes, so 4 nights isn't as luxurious as it sounds!
The Iris's bright blue reflection nebula is the main focal point of course, but I'm really drawn to the chocolate hued dust clouds. The way these seem to hang in space in front of the darker background lends a depth that I wanted to capture.
I resisted the temptation to blend in the higher resolution Iris and Ghost data from the longer scope. Nothing wrong with doing that, but I thought it would look a bit off to have those sections visibly sharper than the rest.
I recall the dust is around 1200 light years distant. I think that may explain why many of the stars, being yet more distant, are browned by the dust. but the brighter stars seem unaffected so possibly those are nearer.
Most of this data was captured at Goldendale Sky Village, a new astronomy community in rural Washington. A group of Oregon and Washington amateurs pooled funds and purchased a large piece of land in a Bortle 2 zone. Plots are still available if you are in the area. Each Summer new Moon takes on the feel of a star party as 20+ enthusiasts will be onsite.
EDIT: I recently downloaded the EZ processing Suite for Pixinsight and used it for star reduction here. This was one click easy and did a great job. I highly recommend this tool set from Darkarcon Link:
https://darkarchon.internet-box.ch:8443/
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