Instrument

12.5" RCOS @  ~f/9 (2880 mm fl) 0.643 arcsec / pixel.  Zoomify image scale is 1.28 to 3.33 arcsec / pixel.

Mount

Paramount ME

Camera

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

Acquisition Data

8/26/2009 to 10/16/2009 Chino Valley, AZ... with CCDAutoPilot3 & CCDSoft.

Exposure

Lum  225 min. (15 x 15 min. bin 1x1)

RGB  270 min  ( 6 x 15 min. each, bin 1x1)

Click here for an Ha filtered b/w version.

Click here for a narrowband color mapped version.

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.

PhotoShop for on-linear stretching.

North is to the left.

NGC 281 is an HII region in the constellation of Cassiopeia. It includes the open cluster IC 1590, the double star HD 5005, and several Bok globules. NGC 281 is about 10,000 light-years away. Sometimes called the Pacman nebula, because when viewed though a telescope it resembles the video game character.