IC63- Astronomy and astrophotography CCD camera images




08/09/2005
Object name: IC 63
Popular name:
Object type: Bright Nebula
Magnitude: 0
Size: 10 3
Position angle: 0
Classification:
Apparent RA: 0h 59m 51s Apparent Dec: +60 56 27
Constellation: Cassiopeia

IC 63 is an extremely faint nebula. I have tried it before - being so close to gamma Cassiopeiae its easy to locate, but my sky brightness has always prevented me getting much more than a smudge. This is not a "great" image, but a vast improvement. It was captured at high gain to take advantage of every photon and could do with 50 frames to drop the noise level down - or longer exposures at a lower gain. But the tracking is not up to that. When the tracking is that good, I will get some proper emission line filters.

Mind you, with exposures of that length and gain I was very glad of my Direct Bias Amp Off removing all the amp glow!

For this object, and its friend IC59 I really need less focal length.

Captured in k3ccdtools. Stacked in registax. Saved as 16 bit FITS. Opened in photoshop. Curves to bring out nebula. 50% darken faded minimum filter to reduce star brightness. Bit of NeatImage to knock the edges off the noise. This image was captured as a test of anAstronomik CLS broadband filter.

Exposure Details :

Astronomik CLS Filter 23x121s on 200mm @ F5 with SC3.5

Curdridge Observatory, Southampton,UK