Dark Shark nebula (LDN 1235) (David Koslicki)

Celestial hemisphere: Northern · Constellation: Cepheus (Cep) · Contains: 16 Cep · 24 Cep · HD208509 · HD210369 · HD210511 · HD210615 · HD210806 · HD210873 · HD211300 · HD211771 · HD211879 · LBN 535 · LBN 541 · LBN 546 · LDN 1235 · The star 16 Cep · The star 24 Cep · VdB149

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Dark Shark nebula (LDN 1235)

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Dark Shark nebula (LDN 1235)

This beautiful dark nebula in Cepheus has a reputation of being challenging to image without dark skies. I decided to put that to the test and image from my Bortle 5 backyard. In order to measure the impact of the moon, I started when the moon was full (96% illuminated), and also imaged when the moon was waning (5%-10%). As suspected, the luminance subs when the moon was full were degrading the quality of the stack, even after LP removal and background calibration. On the other hand, a fair bit of the frames when the moon was at 74% were still usable! After manually culling frames based on background illumination value, this is the result I got. So conclusion to the experiment: yes, you can image this target in Bortle 5 and no, you shouldn't try when the moon is full and/or anywhere near Cepheus. : )

The refractors!

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Status	Advanced success
Started	...
Astrometry.net job	6480393
PixInsight job	V6AK3XXJYTHGX9B5UOGDYAS9508SAA2S
PixInsight queue size	n/a
PixInsight stage	TASK_LOG

RA (center)	22h03m29s.98
RA (top/left)	22h22m38s.60
RA (top/right)	21h43m47s.88
RA (bottom/right)	21h46m42s.10
RA (bottom/left)	22h20m54s.88

Dec (center)	+73°06′41″.8
Dec (top/left)	+74°11′19″.0
Dec (top/right)	+74°07′58″.8
Dec (bottom/right)	+71°56′09″.10
Dec (bottom/left)	+71°59′06″.4

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Dark Shark nebula (LDN 1235)

Dark Shark nebula (LDN 1235)

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Dark Shark nebula (LDN 1235)

Dark Shark nebula (LDN 1235)

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