20220124 - LDN 1622 (ORI) The Boogeyman - a demon from the dark side, that needs more attention

What’s in the picture(s) -
Quote: “LDN 1622: Dark Nebula in Orion The silhouette of an intriguing dark nebula inhabits this cosmic scene. Lynds' Dark Nebula (LDN) 1622 appears against a faint background of glowing hydrogen gas only visible in long telescopic exposures of the region. In contrast the brighter reflection nebula vdB 62 is more easily seen just above and right of center. LDN 1622 lies near the plane of our Milky Way Galaxy close on the sky to Barnard's Loop a large cloud surrounding the rich complex of emission… “

What was the experience
Going for long integration times at this moment has its difficulties, with so few nights with Clear Skies. In my case, I’m even limited to 2-3 hours at night for all south-bound objects, anything below 35degrees just blocked by branches, because of a sprawl of neighbouring trees that nobody cares about doing some maintenance on.

So, a first pass at this object, just barely clipping the trees, not sure when the next opportunity (Clear Sky) is going to come in. Although the boogeyman would gladly devour much more of my time, for now this is a glimpse of him lurking in the dark.

Captured as HaRGB, processing based on the experience gained in the last months, HaRGB-palette with a little twist. Missing sufficient data in G and B, which is mainly impacting the visibility of the reflection nebula vdb 62. Some difficulties in getting the noise under control and achieving the right blend of Ha with RGB (nearly no detail in the rgb data, only stars), the blend-formula’s work ok, but I’m not too happy about how my background and stars turned out. Something to focus on for the next learning.

As a result: An eerie boogeyman, watching over us in silence from the heavens … but he needs more attention

How it was done
Scope: TS140 APO (FL 910mm)
Mount: CEM70G
Camera: ASI2600MM Pro
Photons: HaRGB 300s 20x 4x 3x 10x
Processing: PixInsight (Mac)

What have I learned from this
Fighting the frustration of not being able to go for longer integration times, because of various reasons. At this moment, I just don’t want to wait for months, before I am able to get in the extra data. Instead, As a plan B, I’m trying to improve my processing skills to make the most of what I’ve got. Life is short, you have to saviour every day

Clear Skies everybody! 🤩✨🔭

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