This is a wide-field portrait of a set of nebulas with colourful names but rendered here in monochrome: The Bubble Nebula at upper left; the Lobster Claw Nebula below it (somewhat obvious for its shape); the Cave Nebula at upper right; and the Wizard Nebula at bottom. The small round nebula above the Wizard is Sharpless 2-152. Just below it and very small is Sh2-148. The star cluster right of centre is NGC 7419. The Bubble Nebula's spherical bubble is a little lost at this scale. It lies below the star cluster Messier 52. The Bubble is also NGC 7635. The Lobster Claw is Sharpless 2-157 and is sometimes called the Californietto. The Cave Nebula is Sharpless 2-155, while the Wizard is Sharpless 2-142 but also known as NGC 7380 though that designation applies to the star cluster associated with it. All are located on the Cassiopeia-Cepheus border. North is more or less up in this portrait orientation. This is a stack of 12 x 16-minute exposures with the SharpStar 61mm EDPH refractor with its reducer at f/4.4, and with the Canon EOS Ra camera at ISO 3200, with a clip-in Astronomik 12nm H-alpha filter to block all but red H-a light for a monochrome portrait. Luminosity masks with Lumenzia helped bring out the faint nebulosity. The initial exposures were taken in moonlight. I added a slight blue colour grade for artistic effect.
The Bug Nebula, NGC 6302, a tiny bi-polar planetary nebula in the tail of Scorpius, set in a nebula-rich field. This is a stack of 5 x 6-minute exposures with the Astro-Physics Traveler at f/6 and filter-modified Canon 5D MkII at ISO 1600. Taken from Tibuc Cottage, Australia. Not really enough focal length to do this object justice but I shot it to add to the files. Another bug in the collection!
This is the California Nebula (aka NGC 1499) in Perseus, a classic red emission nebula emitting mostly at the red wavelength of hydrogen-alpha light but also with a strong hydrogen-beta emission line in the blue-green part of the spectrum. By contrast, below is the small blue reflection nebula known only as IC 348, a cloud of dust surrounding hot blue stars and reflecting their light. But the region also contains some dim red emission nebulosity. Also throughout the field are patches of yellow-brown dust that form obscuring dark nebulas. The main dark nebulas are Barnard 5 (above IC 348) and Barnard 4 below. This is a stack of 8 x 8 minute unfiltered exposures at ISO 800 blended with a stack of 9 x 15-minute exposures through an Optolong L-Enhance narrowband filter, to bring out the emission nebulas. All were with the Canon EOS Ra camera through the William Optics RedCat 51mm astrograph at f/4.9, equipped with the Starizona filter drawer. Autoguiding was with the Lacerta MGEN3 stand-alone autoguider on the Astro-Physics Mach 1 mount. All stacking, alignment and blending was with Photoshop. Luminosity masks applied with Lumenzia to do selective curves adjustments to various tonal ranges. Shot from home November 15, 2020.
