Wizard/Flying Horse Nebula

After a spate of cloudy weather and full moon, I’m finally able to get out observing again.  I’ve been having a good time imaging things in Cepheus, so I decided to continue working there.  I used Delta Cephei as my alignment star.  This is the prototypical Cepheid variable.  I don’t know where it was in its cycle last night, but it was bright enough to be easy to find to get me started.  I used the PicGoto to get from there to the nebula, which is not visible except at long exposures (the asterism at the top of the image, a near-equilateral triangle of bright stars with pairs in two of the corners, was easily visible).  I'm not sure what this nebula's popular name is; I've seen both "The Wizard" and "Flying Horse Nebula."  I can't see a wizard, but I can imagine a flying horse (and it's in the sky, after all!).  I ran the chiller at 2.5 A, but it didn’t seem to be doing anything; I'm not sure what's wrong so I’ll have to check it out more fully.  The nebulosity really came out in the processing. Conditions were very good: clear, with no wind. 

This is a big improvement over the last time I tried this object, 2 years ago. Back then, I used a focal reducer and did not correct very well around the margins of the image (I really need a bigger imaging chip to get a larger field of view, but large-chip cameras are outside my budget range at present).  This time, I think the UHC-S filter helped improve the contrast.  My processing techniques have also improved a lot since the 2012 image.  I noticed that my excellent scope balance at the beginning of the session degraded considerably as Cepheus got higher in the sky.

Date: 18 Jun 2014

Subject: NGC 7380/Sh2-142, Wizard/Flying Horse Nebula

Scope: AT8IN + High Point Scientific Coma Corrector

Filter: Baader Planetarium UHC-S

Mount: CG-5 (Synta motors, PicGoto Simplificado)

Guiding: 9x50 Finder/Guider + DSI Ic + PHD 2.2.2 (Win 7 ASCOM)

Camera: DSI IIc chiller at 2.50 A, 12-9 °C

Acquisition: Nebulosity 3.2.0, no dither

Exposure: 53x300 s

Stacking: Neb 3, bad pixel map, bias included, normalize first, trans+rot align, 1.5 SD stack.

Processing: StarTools 1.3.5.279 Crop; Wipe:Color & brightness 75%; Develop 90.05%; Color:Scientific, 225%; HDR Optimize soft; Deconvolute auto mask 2.6 pix; Life:Moderate; Track RNC 2.7%; Magic:Shrink 1 pix; Life:Heavy. CS6 Astronomy Tools Increase star color; Levels; Astro Frame.

I've rotated the old image to approximately the same orientation

Date: 17 Aug 2012

Subject: NGC 7380 / Sh2-142, Flying Horse Nebula

Scope: AT8IN + 0.5x Antares telereducer

Filter: none

Mount: CG-5 (Synta motors)

Guiding: Orion ST80 + 0.5x Antares telereducer + DSI Ic + PHD

Camera: DSI IIc 

Acquisition: Nebulosity 3.1.0

Exposure: 60 x240 s

Stacking: Neb 3, bias included, normalize first, trans+rot align, 1.5 SD stack

Processing: crop, color balance, digital development, levels & curves, one layer GreyCStoration, unsharp mask another in N3.  Astronomy Tools horizontal band, color blotch, deep space noise reduction in the denoise layer.  Layer mask combine the layers, AT enhance DSO/reduce stars, star color enhance, GradientXTerminator, star size reduction, saturation boost all in CS6.