A deep view into the "Ghost of Cassiopeia"

Image Title: A deep view into the "Ghost of Cassiopeia"

Copyright: Markus Horn

Date image was taken: October 12, 2024

Location (was image taken with remote scope?): Hannover (Germany)

Image Description and Details: The area around the well-known "Ghost of Cassiopeia" had been on my agenda for a while, and this year I was finally able to make it happen.

Once again, I wanted to use my fast f/2 optics and a 400mm focal length to capture not only RGB data but also as much H-alpha signal as possible across the entire region. My goal was to show how deeply IC 63 and IC 59 are embedded within the H-alpha clouds. For this, I gathered 9.5 hours of RGB and 6.75 hours of H-alpha data.To ensure that the beautiful reflection nebulae of IC 63 and IC 59 weren’t completely overwhelmed by the narrowband data, I combined the H-alpha data in this area with the RGB data using continuum reduction. Finally I invested some more hours to find a good balance between the RGB and narrowband components for the final image.

Equipment Details: Celestron RASA 8 f/2
Celestron Motorfocus
EQ6-R Pro
ZWO ASI 2600 MC Pro (Gain 100, Offset 18, -10°)
RGB: 576 × 60″ (9h 36′)
TS 2600 MP (Gain 100, Offset 200, -10°)
Baader H-Alpha Highspeed 3.5nm: 202 × 120″ (6h 44')
Total: 16h 20'
Bortle 5 (19.50 SQM)
N.I.N.A., Guiding: ASI 120MM & PHD2
Astropixelprocessor, Photoshop, Pixinsight

Name: Markus Horn

Website or Facebook Profile: http://www.astrophoto-hannover.de/