The California Nebula
The California Nebula is about 1,800 light-years away from Earth and is located within the same spur of the Orion spiral arm of the Milky Way galaxy as Earth.
November 30, 2023
Same Data, new processing technique! I think this new technique does a much better job of achieving depth in images with nebulosity and controls star size much better, which is fully on display here. Plus there’s the added bonus of seeing a bit more of the faint nebulosity around the edges!
Technical Details
Imaging Telescope: William Optics RedCat 51 II
Imaging Camera: ZWO ASI533MC Pro
Mount: Sky-Watcher EQ6-R Pro
Filter: SVBony UV/IR Cut 2”
Accessories: ZWO ASIAIR Plus, ZWO EAF, ZWO Filter Drawer (Gen 2)
Software: Siril, Photoshop, NoiseXterminator, Starnet
Guiding Telescope: William Optics UniGuide 32
Guiding Camera: ZWO ASI174MM
Imaging Dates: Nov. 10, 2023; Nov. 21, 2023
Frames (gain 101.0) f/4.9 -10c: 90×90″(2h15m), 46x180”(2h18m)
Integration Time: 4h33m
Darks/Flats/Dark Flats: 30/30/30
Bortle Dark-Sky Scale: 4.00
November 23, 2023
Added some data to the California Nebula last night. I encountered an odd artifact in my subframes while imaging. It was a small wedge cutout in only the brightest star (Menkib). It seems to have vanished during the stacking process though. I was a bit surprised to see that other than losing a small amount of noise, I didn’t seem to gain as much detail as I expected from the longer exposures and doubling the integration time. A bonus to the added integration time is that I can push the data a little mor ein terms of saturation and contrast, as you can see compared to my last image.
Technical Details
Imaging Telescope: William Optics RedCat 51 II
Imaging Camera: ZWO ASI533MC Pro
Mount: Sky-Watcher EQ6-R Pro
Filter: SVBony UV/IR Cut 2”
Accessories: ZWO ASIAIR Plus, ZWO EAF, ZWO Filter Drawer (Gen 2)
Software: DSS, Siril, Photoshop, AstroFlat Pro, NoiseXterminator, StarXterminator, Astronomy Tools Actions Set
Guiding Telescope: William Optics UniGuide 32
Guiding Camera: ZWO ASI174MM
Imaging Dates: Nov. 10, 2023; Nov. 23, 2023
Frames (gain 101.0) f/4.9 -10c: 90×90″(2h15m), 46x180”(2h18m)
Integration Time: 4h33m
Darks/Flats/Dark Flats: 30/30/30
Bortle Dark-Sky Scale: 4.00
November 11, 2023
My first image of the California Nebula. This is a very large area of nebulosity that’s somewhat near the Pleiades. It’s about 2x the size of a full moon! Given there’s only a little over 2 hours of integration time, I’ve very happy with how this image turned out, though I’m certainly going to revisit this target in the future.
Technical Details
Imaging Telescope: William Optics RedCat 51 II
Imaging Camera: ZWO ASI533MC Pro
Mount: Sky-Watcher EQ6-R Pro
Filter: SVBony UV/IR Cut 2”
Accessories: ZWO ASIAIR Plus, ZWO EAF, ZWO Filter Drawer (Gen 2)
Software: DSS, Siril, Photoshop, AstroFlat Pro, NoiseXterminator, StarXterminator, Astronomy Tools Actions Set
Guiding Telescope: William Optics UniGuide 32
Guiding Camera: ZWO ASI174MM
Imaging Dates: Nov. 10, 2023
Frames (gain 101.0) f/4.9 -10c: 90×90″(2h15m)
Integration Time: 2h15m
Darks/Flats/Dark Flats: 30/30/30
Bortle Dark-Sky Scale: 4.00