The Veil Nebula
Description: The Veil Nebula, in the constellation of Cygnus. This image was taken on July 21, 2009 from Table Mountain Star Party in Washington state.
This shot was mainly a test of the field of view with my new C8 Hyperstar setup with QHY8PRO camera. I'll eventually got another shot of this area with a Hydrogen Alpha filter. This will bring out lots more of the emission parts of the nebula and also tone down some of the numerous stars.
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: 20x240 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.