The one and only time that I imaged the Fish Head Nebula (NGC 896) previously was almost four years ago, when I was shooting under brighter skies, using a different camera, and not using the Orion Skyglow Imaging Filter (which I currently employ whenever I am imaging emission nebulae). Thus, I decided that it was time to give this target another go. You can judge the improvement by taking a quick look at the previous effort
here.
IC 1805, of which NGC 896 is the brightest part, lies about 7,500 light years away. Notable in my image is the dense, little open cluster located toward the lower left of the image. This cluster is designated as Tombaugh 4, the fourth of five open clusters discovered by Clyde Tombaugh, whose most important achievement was the discovery of Pluto. The distance to Tombaugh 4 seems not to have been established with any degree of certitude. I have seen values on the internet ranging from 7,000 light years, which would place the cluster more or less within IC 1805, to 11,000 light years, which would place it behind the nebula. I like imaging open clusters, so wherever it is located, I'm glad that it showed up in my image.
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