NGC1491 Sh2-206 'Fossil Footprint' Nebula, SHO with RGB stars (Alastairmk)

Celestial hemisphere: Northern · Constellation: Perseus (Per) · Contains: NGC 1491

NGC1491 Sh2-206 'Fossil Footprint' Nebula, SHO with RGB stars, Alastairmk

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NGC1491 Sh2-206 'Fossil Footprint' Nebula, SHO with RGB stars

Powered byPixInsight

NGC1491 Sh2-206 'Fossil Footprint' Nebula, SHO with RGB stars

Sh2-206, aka NGC 1491 is a very faint emission nebula in Perseus with a bright core with SII and OIII emissions that don't appear to extend far into the surrounding cloud of dust and hydrogen. With a strongly spread Ha signal the SII and OIII blends into a white central region. Perhaps I might have drawn out more color there but I rather like the gloomy sepia surroundings and the contrast with RGB stars that have had their color saturation boosted.

The subframes were acquired over 12 nights during mid-August to early October, 2023 from my backyard observatory. Nearly all were taken during the graveyard shift from around 1:30am to dawn as the primary target was another object that disappeared into the trees in the early morning. For a dim image like SH2-206, this is an advantage as light pollution goes down as neighborhood lights switch off after midnight.

After a lot of culling of subframes to maintain detail as sharp as my instrument and seeing permitted and to reduce the worst light pollution gradients, I was left with a total SHO integration time of 23 hours and another hour of RGB 60s exposures to capture the stars, all at gain 139dB and -10C:
Ha 44x10min
SII 51x10min
OIII 43x10min

Processing in Pixinsight through what is now my standard workflow: WBPP, NSG, the RC-Astro AI suite and GHS with some tweaks with CT.

Light Polluted skies
NOVAC

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Status	Basic success
Started	...
Astrometry.net job	8607008
PixInsight job	n/a
PixInsight queue size	n/a
PixInsight stage	n/a

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NGC1491 Sh2-206 'Fossil Footprint' Nebula, SHO with RGB stars

NGC1491 Sh2-206 'Fossil Footprint' Nebula, SHO with RGB stars

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NGC1491 Sh2-206 'Fossil Footprint' Nebula, SHO with RGB stars

NGC1491 Sh2-206 'Fossil Footprint' Nebula, SHO with RGB stars

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