Nebulosity in Cepheus with 135mm telephoto lens at f/2.8 and Canon 5DMkII at ISO 640 for stack of 4 x 4.5 minutes. IC 1396 is large nebula right of centre; Sharpless 2-129 is crescent shaped nebula at right of frame; NGC 7380 is at left of frame; Sh 2-132 is between IC 1396 and NGC 7380; prominent dark nebulas are B 169-70-71 (large one) and B 173-4 (smaller one).
Heart and Soul Nebula area of Cassiopeia. IC 1805 (Heart Nebula) at right with NGC 896 at upper right, and IC 1848 (Soul Nebula, aka the Foetus Nebula) at left with NGC 1027 open cluster between them. This was taken October 13, 2010 from home with the Borg 77mm astrograph at f/4.1 and the Canon 5D MkII camera (filter modified) at ISO 800 for a stack of 5 x 15 minute exposures with IDAS Light Pollution Supression filter. It was autoguided with the SBIG SG-4 stand-alone Smart Guider, which does a superb job. This was the first real test of the LPS filter, which slides into a filter drawer the little Borg astrograph has. The LPS filter cuts out unwanted wavelengths and lets through emission lines from nebulas such as this, while remaining fairly colour-neutral. It certainly does help bring out the faint nebulosity while increasing contrast and darkening the sky. However, compared to an unfiltered image, this view does sacrifice some of the subtle colour variations (magentas, oranges) visible in nebulas such as this, plus you lose some of the subtle variations in colours in the background sky from dark nebulosity which can contribute shades of yellow, brown, even green. The result with the filter is more "in-your-face" red everywhere. Impressive, but lacking some of the fine colours that DSLRs can record (as opposed to CCDs used with selective narrow-band filters).
IC 1805 and at upper right, NGC 896 nebulosity in Cassiopeia. Taken with 5-inch apo refractor at f/6 with field flattener, and Hutech-modified Canon 5D camera, for stack of 4 x 16 minute exposures at ISO400. Taken from home December 16, 2006.
