IC1396
Description: IC1396 in the constellation of Cepheus. This image was taken on July 18, 2009 from Table Mountain Star Party in Washington state.
The IC1396 region includes a large emission nebula with many interesting dark nebulae in the foreground. In the top center of the image, the Elephant's Trunk nebula can be faintly seen. The bright star at the far left of the image is Mu Cephei, also known as Herschel's Garnet Star.
This image was taken with my QHY8PRO one-shot-color camera at F/2 with Hyperstar on my C8 telescope. It would greatly benefit from some hydrogen alpha filtered exposures. I have an H-alpha filter, but it is the wrong size for this configuration, and also it has too narrow a band pass for F/2. I'll be getting an appropriate H-alpha filter in the future and will probably revisit this area.
Equipment: The image was taken with an 8" Celestron C8 telescope on a Celestron CGE mount with a Hyperstar 3 lens. The camera was a QHY8PRO. The exposures were guided with Astro-Tech AT66ED refractor and Meade DSI Pro piggyback mounted on the C8, using PHD guiding software. Focus was done automatically with FocusMax and a MicroTouch focus motor on a FeatherTouch SCT focuser.
Exposures: 15x240 seconds binned 1x1.
Processing: Image capture was done with Maxim/DL 5. Calibration, registration, noise reduction and stacking were done in CCDStack. Curves, levels and zone processing were done in Photoshop CS2. Gradient processing was done with GradientXTerminator.
Click on image for full resolution.