On the search for a new target, following my Crescent Nebula image, I stumbled across the this area of space which is an interesting combination in the constellation of Vulpecula.

In the image's center lies the NGC6823 open star cluster, surrounded by the Sh2-86 emission nebula, which includes a structure that some people call "the little elephant trunk" which I prefer to call "the lonely pillar of creation". The Sh2-86 is often designated as NGC6820 by many people and some internet search seems to provide contradictory results. According to the SIMBAD database, the NGC6820 is actually the small reflection nebula seen on my full image as a red diffuse structure. The AB astrometry correctly identifies this object.

I hope you enjoy!

Please feel free to comment.


Some technical items for the interested:
The image is captured in SHO, where the color mixture is roughly the following SII=yellow, Ha=green + a bit of blue + a bit of red, OIII=cyan. (I can provide the numerics if somebody likes to know). Of course, post processing in Affinity Photo will alter this color balance (sometimes quite significantly).
In addition, and contrary to common practice, I've created a super-luminance layer out of the SHO data which gives increased SNR and which I use as a luminance layer to the "RGB" data determined through the SHO. I've compared my LSHO and SHO only and detail with the super-luminance layer was significantly better.

This image was capture with my 8" Meade ACF SCT and I'm quite surprised that I still get some acceptable results. There are two technical issues. One is the fact that my reducer doesn't provide an ideal result for this optical setup. The images still show some field curvature and also coma (which seems to be induced by the reducer as the SCT shows nearly no coma). I'm going to try to use another reducer which should fit the ACF by design. Hopefully, the weather allows me to do a basic test of this item in the next few days (or nights, I should say).
The other item is the movable mirror in the SCT and the OTA doesn't have a mirror lock. (Believe it or not, I'm still working like a cave man. I'm focusing manually and even don't have an electronic filter wheel.) So, I'm starting the imaging session at the evening (it was around 10pm for this object) and focus the target using a Bahtinov mask (the star Altair was my aid for this object). After this focusing, the SCT has to keep its focus for the rest of the night (until 4:30am), including a meridian flip. I'm still in the analysis phase how stable the focus can remain during this process. For the OIII data I had measurable focus loss at the end of the session, while it performed well for the Ha and SII sessions.