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[QUOTE="collinsmark, post: 6865767, member: 114325"] Casper the Friendly Ghost Nebula (a.k.a. M78, Messier 78, NGC 2068) welcomed from my back patio in February 2023. M78 is a reflection nebula, approximately 1350 light-years away, and can be seen from Earth in the constellation Orion. Casper is dead center on the celestial equator, making him equally friendly to observers in both the northern and southern hemispheres. [ATTACH type="full" alt="Casper2023_Final_SmallForPF.jpg"]323642[/ATTACH] Figure 1. Casper the Friendly Ghost Nebula (M78). [ATTACH type="full" alt="Casper2023_Final_SmallRotForPF.jpg"]323643[/ATTACH] Figure 2: Same image, just rotated so it can be displayed a little larger on PF. This is my very first attempt to photograph a reflection nebula, ever (I'm a little embarrassed to say). Unlike emission nebulae, which emit light at very specific wavelengths via electron excitation and ionization, reflection nebulae merely reflect the light from nearby stars, thus having very wide, continuous bands of wavelengths. That makes narrowband filters pretty much useless for reflection nebulae, and there isn't an easy way to separate the nebulosity's signal from the noise of the light pollution. And I've got plenty of light pollution. I had some struggles with reproducible gradients in the unprocessed data. I've ruled out my flats, and almost ruled out moon glow, but their true source is still somewhat of a mystery. I managed to remove the gradients in post processing, but I'm afraid I might have taken out some of the nebulosity along with them. I would have liked to gather more data (like luminance data with an L-Pro filter), but then the clouds and rains came and haven't stopped for weeks. [Edit: I think I may have figured out the gradients. I neglected to shield my telescope from my neighbor's porchlight by propping up a bedsheet nearby, like I occasionally do. I forgot about that, this time. Without the bedsheet, the glare strikes the inside of my telescope's dewsheild when the telescope is facing anywhere near that direction. Hence the gradients.] [B]Equipment:[/B] Meade 10" LX200-ACF fork mounted on an equatorial wedge. Off-axis guider (OAG) with guide camera. Optolong LRGB filter set. ZWO ASI6200MM-Pro main camera. [B]Software:[/B] N.I.N.A. PHD2 guiding PixInsight with RC-Astro plugins. [B]Integration:[/B] Location: San Diego Bortle class 7 (maybe 8 ) skies. All subframes binned 3x3 R: 160×240s = 10.67 hrs G: 243×240s = 16.20 hrs B: 108×240s = 7.20 hrs Total integration time: 34.07 hours. Casper the Friendly Ghost is, of course, always welcome at the Shady Crypt Observatory. [/QUOTE]
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