Celestial hemisphere:  Northern  ·  Constellation: Cassiopeia (Cas)  ·  Contains:  NGC 225  ·  VdB4

Image of the day 08/11/2020

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    VDB4 and the Sailboat Cluster | A Reflecting Dark Nebula, Kevin Morefield
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    VDB4 and the Sailboat Cluster | A Reflecting Dark Nebula

    Image of the day 08/11/2020

    Getting plate-solving status, please wait...
      VDB4 and the Sailboat Cluster | A Reflecting Dark Nebula, Kevin Morefield
      Powered byPixInsight

      VDB4 and the Sailboat Cluster | A Reflecting Dark Nebula

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      Description

      The open cluster NGC 225, known as the sailboat, appears just above the dark nebula VDB4. Not much is out there on these two, either photographically or descriptively. It appears that the Cluster is in front of the nebula as the dust is reflecting the blue light of the young stars.

      It appears to me that the is significant gas surrounding the stars in the cluster as well. The area around the stars seems to be glowing a bit and brighter than the sky background further away. This gives the image a soft look which I retained. Attempts to add contrast or bring up the black level obliterated the dark nebula below the cluster so I assumed this soft glow is real.

      I believe this to be the sharpest data I've captured to date. Even after star alignment and the resample the median FWHM was below 2.0"and the Luminance median around 1.8". Sharpness that is completely wasted on this sort of target!

      CCDStack for Calibration, deconvolution, and stretching.

      Pixinsight for Cosmetic correction, DBE, Star Alignment, and Image integration

      Topaz 5.1 for noise reduction

      Photoshop for Curves, Color and Saturation adjustments

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      VDB4 and the Sailboat Cluster | A Reflecting Dark Nebula, Kevin Morefield

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