The large star-forming region of IC 1396 in Cepheus, taken September 4, 2018 from home in southern Alberta. The wide field includes the bright orange star Mu Cephei, or Herschel’s Garnet Star, at upper left. The Elephant Trunk Nebula is just right of centre. North is at top. This is a stack of 9 exposures: 5 x 4 minutes at ISO 1600 and 4 x 8 minutes at ISO 800, all with the 77mm f/4 Borg Astrograph and filter-modified Canon 5D MkII, an old but very excellent camera! With the 300mm focal length and full frame camera the field is about 7° by 4°. Star diffraction spikes added with AstronomyTools actions. StarShrink filter also applied. Focused with Bahtinov mask. Autoguided with SG4.
The large star-forming region of IC 1396 in Cepheus, taken September 5, 2018 from home in southern Alberta. The wide field includes the bright orange star Mu Cephei, or Herschel’s Garnet Star, at top. The Elephant Trunk Nebula is at centre. North is at top. This is a stack of 7 exposures: 5 x 6 minutes at ISO 1600 with an LPS light pollution reduction filter and 2 x 5 minutes at ISO 1600 without the LPS filter, all with the 77mm f/4 Borg Astrograph and filter-modified Canon 5D MkII. I refocused between unfiltered and filtered shots, and registered the images in Photoshop. The filtered shots record the red nebulosity with more intensity. The unfiltered shots provide a more natural color to the stars and background sky. So this is a composite that blends the best of both worlds. Diffraction spikes added with Astronomy Tools actions.
IC 1396 nebula in Cepheus for stack of 4 x 13 minute exposures with Borg 77mm apo refractor at f/4 and Canon 20Da camera at ISO 400. Taken on a superb night, Sept. 11, 2007. Garnet Star, Mu Cephei at top.
