NGC7023 - The Iris Nebula
Description: NGC7023, the Iris Nebula, is located in the constellation of Cepheus. This image was taken on July 27, 2008 at the Table Mountain Star Party between Ellensburg and Wenatchee in central Washington. Conditions were cold and windy. This was my first attempt at this object and it is not a good candidate for my ST-10 camera. The issue is that the central star in the nebula is bright enough that it blooms drastically at exposures as low as 60 seconds. To get the full details of the surrounding dust clouds and clean up the noise, I would need to go much deeper. As it was, I had to do some major editing in Photoshop to remove the bloom spikes from this shot. I am thinking about revisiting this object at Oregon Star Party at the end of August, but with my Canon 20D (which does not bloom) instead of the ST-10.
Equipment: The image was taken with an 8" Meade LX200ACF telescope on a Celestron CGE mount. The camera was an SBIG ST10XME with an Astro-Physics .67 Telecompressor and Astrodon filters. The guide scope and camera were an AstroTech AT66ED refractor with an SBIG remote guide head attached to the ST10. Focusing was done with an Optec TCF-S focuser with temperature compensation turned off.
Exposures: 37x60 seconds luminance binned 1x1; 18x60 seconds each red, green and blue exposures binned 2x2.
Processing: Bias, dark & flat calibration, image registration & color registration were done in Maxim/DL. Curves, levels, LRGB combination, zone sharpening & noise reduction were done in Photoshop CS2. Gradient processing was done with GradientXTerminator.
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