The Pillars of Darkness (B22 Region)
Image Details:
This is a closeup on a section of the Taurus Molecular Cloud, an area of interstellar dust about 430 ly away which contains a series of stellar nurseries. This area is mainly dominated by the Barnard 22 dark cloud, but other subsections of bright and dark nebula are visible throughout with varying designations. During my week of photographing this area, a 70km-wide asteroid called 322 Phaeo was also moving through one corner of the camera’s field of view, which is labeled in the annotated version below.
Equipment:
William Optics Star71-II Petzval APO (345mm Focal Length, F/4.9)
ZWO ASI1600MM-P, ZWO Filters (4/3 sensor size)
Hypertuned Celestron CGEM-II
Autoguiding: Orion 50mm Guidescope + ZWO ASI224MC
Exposures:
Luminance: 316 x 120” (Total: 10h 32m)
Red, Green, Blue: 62, 56, 64 x 120” (Total: 6h 4m)
Misc Details:
Capture Software: AstrophotographyTool, PHD2 (guiding), Celestron CPWI (mount control), Pegasus Powerbox (dew heater control, power management)
Processing Software: PixInsight
Taken from: Okie-Tex Star Part 2021, Bortle Class 1 skies
Dates: 3-8 October, 2021