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Astrophotography by Bob Franke

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IC 405 - The Flaming Star Nebula


      Click the full screen zoom button           ^
     
Click the image to Zoom and Pan              

Click here to view the image without Zoomify (1875 x 1250, 458 KB)

 

 

Instrument

12.5" RCOS @  ~f/9 (2880 mm fl) 1.28 arcsec / pixel.  The Zoomify image scale is 1.28 to 3.20 arcsec / pixel.

Mount

Paramount ME

Camera

SBIG STL-11000 w/ internal filter wheel, AstroDon 6nm Ha Filter

Acquisition Data

10/31/2010 to 1/28/2011 Chino Valley, AZ... with CCDAutoPilot3 & CCDSoft.  AOL guided

Exposure

Hα    600 min. (20 x 30 min. bin 1x1)

Click here for the RGB color image.

Click here for narrow band color mapped images.

Software

  • CCDSoft, CCDStack, Photoshop CS and Noel Carboni's actions.

  • PixFix32 (pre-beta) to repair column defects.

  • CCDStack to calibrate, register, normalize, data reject, combine the sub exposures.

  • PhotoShop on-linear stretching.

  • Noiseware Pro, a PhotoShop plug-in.

Comment

North at about 4:00 o'clock., the image is rotated 135° clockwise.

 

IC 405 (also known as the Flaming Star Nebula, SH 2-229, or Caldwell 31) is an emission/reflection nebula in the constellation Auriga, about 1,500 light-years from Earth. The rippling dust and gas lanes surround the star AE Aurigae and give the impression that the star is aflame... hence the nebula's popular name. The star, AE Aurigae, creates the red glow, shown here in B&W, by energizing the nebula's hydrogen.