Clusters and nebulosity at the feet of Gemini the twins, on the border of Orion. M35 star cluster is at top, and supernova remnant IC 443 is below. Brightest nebula in NGC 2174 in Orion, while small nebula below it is IC 2162. Large faint nebula at bottom right is Lower's Nebula, aka Sharpless 2-261. This is a stack of 5 x 8 minute exposures at f/2.8 and ISO 800 with the Canon 5D MkII and Canon L-series 135mm lens.
M35 in Gemini, with nearby nebulosity, IC 443, the Jellyfish Nebula, below, and NGC 2174 (at right) Taken from New Mexico, with 135mm telephoto at f/2.8 and stack of 4 x 6 minute exposures with Canon 5D MkII at ISO 1250, on iOptron SkyTracker.
The Messier star cluster M35 at top right, along with nearby faint nebulas: IC 443, the arc of nebulosity left of centre, and NGC 2174 at bottom right, all set in a very colourful starfield. IC 443 in Gemini is also known as the Jellyfish Nebula, while NGC 2174 in Orion is aka the Monkeyhead Nebula. IC 443 is a supernova remnant, while NGC 2174 is a star forming region. The images for this stack were taken on a less-than-ideal night with high haze adding the natural glows to the stars, accentuating their colours. The two stars at left, Tejat Posterior (aka Mu Geminorum, left) and Propus (aka Eta Geminorum, centre), are both bright red giant stars. Other stars in the field are hot blue stars. This is a stack and blend of: 10 x 4-minute exposures through an Astronomik CLS clip-in filter blended with 8 x 8-minute exposures taken though a 12nm H-Alpha clip-in filter to add in the red nebulosity. All were through the SharpStar 61mm EDPHII apo refractor at f/4.5 and with the Canon EOS Ra camera at ISO 1600 for the CLS filtered images and at ISO 3200 for the H-Alpha filtered shots. Taken from home for a demo image, on a hazy night, March 29, 2022, with the MGEN III autoguider performing inter-frame dithering. It serves as a demo of blending in H-Alpha and also making use of a hazy night! Processing details: The H-Alpha shots were converted to monochrome and processed in Adobe Camera Raw, and blended into the colour image stack with a Lighten blend mode and with colorization added using the Debra Ceravolo method of applying a Hue&Saturation layer set to Colorize at 340 Red and a Lightness of ~50. Masking was applied so the H-alpha image shows through only where the nebulosity is, to prevent the overall sky colour turning red. No darks or flats were applied. All aligned, stacked and blended in Photoshop. Framing planned with SkySafari to include the stars at left and right of the frame.
