Sh2-142 "The Wizard" and NGC 7380 in Ha

[Paramount]

Hello fellow insomniacs

After an hour of cloud cover after aligning and focusing and ruining the first 5 subframes I let the camera run as there was no sign of rain and true to form with the British weather the skies cleared. I managed to get 18x10 subframes of the The Wizard in Cepheus, details are as follows

TMB 115 f7 with field flattener

Starlight Xpress SXVF H36 with FLI filter wheel using Astronomik 13nm Ha filter

Paramount ME

18 x 10 minutes unguided

Simple autodark subtraction in Maxim DL, no flats or bias frames

Aligned and combined in Maxim DL using sum

Saved to 16 bit tiff, using full pixel value and gamma value of 0.8 to stretch

2 x aggressive curves and 1 minor curves alternated with levels in Photoshop CS2

Local contrast enhancement using Noel's tools in Photoshop CS2

Clone stamp tool to tidy image

Final minor cropping to remove effects of stacking

I have also included a rotated cropped closeup of the Wizard to show the detail better.

I had to reduce the quality of the image somewhat in order to post it, better quality version s are on my site http://www.imagingtheheavens.co.uk

Thanks for looking

Best wishes

Gordon:)

http://www.imagingtheheavens.co.uk/USERIMAGES/wizardnebulaHa.jpg

http://www.imagingtheheavens.co.uk/USERIMAGES/wizardnebulaHacrop.jpg

[andyschlei]

That full frame image is haunting with the nebula hanging out there among the stars...

[JAICOA]

Again another fine image Gordon, I agree with Andy looks great. Clear Skies

[RickJ]

I'd never heard of it called The Wizard before. Guess I can see a wizard of witch hat in it. My close-up of it from last year is at:
http://www.spacebanter.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=1295&stc=1

I like your wide field version!

Rick

[chrissy]

Again a very nice picture Gordon, and Rick yours is great too, in colour.

clear skies

chrissy

[paul f. campbell]

Hi Gordon.
Very nice image you captured well done. Clear skies to you Paul.

[winensky]

I never fail to be impressed by the clarity of your unguided images. What is the magnitude of this beastie?

[Paramount]

Hi Matt
I am not sure about the magnitude of the nebula as I haven't been able to find details of this yet but the cluster of stars NGC 7380 is 7.5
Best wishes
Gordon