Celestial hemisphere:  Northern  ·  Constellation: Cassiopeia (Cas)  ·  Contains:  27 Cas)  ·  27 gam Cas  ·  HD5031  ·  HD5071  ·  HD5342  ·  HD5429  ·  HD5459  ·  HD5747  ·  HD5777  ·  HD5797  ·  HD5890  ·  HD6017  ·  HD6130  ·  HD6210  ·  HD6382  ·  IC 59  ·  IC 63  ·  LBN 620  ·  LBN 622  ·  LBN 623  ·  LBN 625  ·  Sh2-185  ·  The star Navi (γ Cas  ·  gamma Cas nebula
Getting plate-solving status, please wait...
IC63 The Ghost of Cassiopeia, George  Yendrey
Powered byPixInsight

IC63 The Ghost of Cassiopeia

Getting plate-solving status, please wait...
IC63 The Ghost of Cassiopeia, George  Yendrey
Powered byPixInsight

IC63 The Ghost of Cassiopeia

Equipment

Loading...

Acquisition details

Loading...

Description

This is an LRGBHa image of IC63, the Ghost of Cassiopeia.

This is a difficult target because the nebula is faint and from Earth's view point it is in a very dense star field.  PixInsight indicated just over 15000 stars within my fov for this target before my final crop of the image.  I plan on adding more data to this image next summer/fall which should help with the Nebula tremendously.

My primary processing goals were to push the stars back so they didn't overwhelm the nebula and to bring the nebula itself forward and make it standout.

The data acquisition took place over three nights from 9/29/2022 to 10/12022.  I just entered all the details under a single night for convenience sake.

The final posted version retained most of the faint nebula cloud, and detail within the nebula while at the same time, maintaining control over Navi, the bright star that illuminates The Ghost.  I also included the full size, uncropped/rotated image.  This image demonstrates, more than the cropped version, the retention of the fain nebula cloud in the lower/left region of the photo that is cropped out of the 'formal' final version.  If you look closely, the dark dust clouds that are scattered in the region are also visible in that you can see the dark space where they occlude the dense star field.

I need to thank Russ Croman for his invaluable help and patience in answering my questions and providing insight on how the tools he has authored are best applied to work together.  Those are NoiseXterminator, StarXterminator, and BlurXterminator.

From the EESA site for IC63:
About 550 light-years away in the constellation of Cassiopeia lies IC 63, a stunning and slightly eerie nebula. Also known as the ghost of Cassiopeia, IC 63 is being shaped by radiation from a nearby unpredictably variable star, Gamma Cassiopeiae, which is slowly eroding away the ghostly cloud of dust and gas. This celestial ghost makes the perfect backdrop for the upcoming feast of All Hallow's Eve — better known as Halloween.The constellation of Cassiopeia, named after a vain queen in Greek mythology, forms the easily recognisable “W” shape in the night sky. The central point of the W is marked by a dramatic star named Gamma Cassiopeiae.The remarkable Gamma Cassiopeiae is a blue-white subgiantvariable star that is surrounded by a gaseous disc. This star is 19 times more massive and 65 000 times brighter than our Sun. It also rotates at the incredible speed of 1.6 million kilometres per hour — more than 200 times faster than our parent star. This frenzied rotation gives it a squashed appearance. The fast rotation causes eruptions of mass from the star into a surrounding disk. This mass loss is related to the observed brightness variations.The radiation of Gamma Cassiopeiae is so powerful that it even affects IC 63, sometimes nicknamed the Ghost Nebula, that lies several light years away from the star. The ghost of Cassiopeia | ESA/Hubble (esahubble.org)

Comments

Revisions

  • Final
    IC63 The Ghost of Cassiopeia, George  Yendrey
    Original
  • IC63 The Ghost of Cassiopeia, George  Yendrey
    E

Sky plot

Sky plot

Histogram

IC63 The Ghost of Cassiopeia, George  Yendrey