Celestial hemisphere:  Northern  ·  Constellation: Cygnus (Cyg)  ·  Contains:  B168  ·  Cocoon Nebula  ·  IC 5146  ·  Sh2-125  ·  VdB147
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Cocoon Nebula / IC 5146, Andrew Barton
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Cocoon Nebula / IC 5146

Getting plate-solving status, please wait...
Cocoon Nebula / IC 5146, Andrew Barton
Powered byPixInsight

Cocoon Nebula / IC 5146

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Description

Imaging the last couple of months has been very difficult. Our summer was usually warm and cloudy without the relief of cooling monsoon rains. Just as the skies started to clear we were assaulted by smoke from the California wild fires. On any given night it is very difficult to predict when smoke will be reducing transparency. Under these conditions, just getting data is an achievement.

I started this session with Ha as the moon was pretty bright when skies cleared enough to image. I wasn't sure what contribution Ha would make to this subject, but it was something I could play with. Conditions then worsened but cleared up just after the new moon. I got most of my RGB data on 9-15. I took more data on 9-16 but S/N rapidly dropped off during this session due to the return of wildfire smoke. So much of this data was rejected.

I ended up using the Ha to enhance the synthetic luminance image. It contributed some detail to the nebula but wasn't essential. I used a PixInsight screen blend at 20% with the Ha data. In the end I am pretty happy how it came out. I haven't imaged the Cocoon in many years. I think of it as comfort food for astrophotography. We could all use little bit of that right now.

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  • Final
    Cocoon Nebula / IC 5146, Andrew Barton
    Original
  • Cocoon Nebula / IC 5146, Andrew Barton
    B

B

Description: My original framing before cropping.

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Cocoon Nebula / IC 5146, Andrew Barton