Instrument

12.5" RCOS @  ~f/9 (2880 mm fl) 0.643 arcsec / pixel.  The Zoomify image scale is 1.28 to 2.56 arcsec / pixel.

Mount

Paramount ME

Camera

SBIG STL-11000 w/ internal filter wheel, AstroDon Gen-I Filters

Acquisition Data

09/22/2009 to 11/15/2009 Chino Valley, AZ... with CCDAutoPilot3 & CCDSoft.

Exposure

Lum    540 min (18 x 30 min, bin 1x1)

RGB    360 min (  8 x 15 min each, bin 2x2)

Software

CCDSoft, CCDStack, Photoshop CS w/ the Fits Liberator plugin and Noel Carboni's actions.

PixFix32 (pre-beta) to repair hot/cold pixels and column defects.

CCDStack to calibrate, register, normalize, data reject, combine the sub exposures & LRGB color combine.

PhotoShop for LLRGB combine &  on-linear stretching.

North is to the top.

The reflection nebula, NGC 1333, is a star forming region and is located 1,000 light-years from Earth toward the constellation Perseus. The newborn stars are mostly obscured by the dense dusty cloud from which they were formed. The large blue part of the nebula is characteristic of starlight reflected by the dust.