The Shark Nebula (LBN 535)

Image Details:

This is part of a large molecular cloud about 650 light years away in the Cepheus constellation. This part of the Northern sky is highest during late Summer and features a generous selection of interesting dark nebula for capture. The brighter blue reflection areas are a little further at 1,000 light years, and the dim galaxy to the lower right (PGC 67671) is 58 million light years in the background.

2022 Reprocess:

Another example on the importance of keeping data from old projects. This data set was the first I captured from Bortle 1 skies and while the unedited data is good in quality, my processing skills at the time were comparatively poor (something I hope I can say every few years). The 2019 edit was decent for its time, but overall suffers from lack of contrast and muted color. In the the newer edit I was able to properly isolate much more of the dimmer interstellar dust throughout the photo and draw it off of the background, which I was able to keep more neutral in color this time. The stars came out much better as well, being more colorful and maintaining a soft glow scattered by the aforementioned dust.

Equipment:

• William Optics Star71-II Petzval APO (345mm Focal Length, F/4.9)

• ZWO ASI1600MM-P, ZWO Filters

• Celestron CGEM-II

• Autoguiding: Orion 50mm Guidescope + ZWO ASI224MC

Exposures:

• Luminance: 111 x 300” (Total: 9h 15m)

• Red, Green, Blue: 24, 23, 22 x 300” (Total: 5h 45m)

Misc Details:

• Capture Software: AstrophotographyTool, PHD2 (guiding), Pegasus Powerbox (dew heater control, power management)

• Processing Software: PixInsight

• Taken from: Okie-Tex Star Party 2019, Bortle 1

• Capture Dates: 23-28 September, 2019

Annotation