Focal Pointe Observatory
Astrophotography by Bob Franke

Home
Recent Images
Galaxies
Nebulae
   Natural Color
   Narrow Band
   H-Alpha
Clusters
Comets
Solar System
Observatory
Equipment
My Freeware
Tips & Tricks
Published Images
Local Weather
Terrestrial

 

Send Email

 

 

 

 

 

Sh2-115 & 116 - Ha Filtered

 

Click the image for a larger view. (1800 x 1200 - 1.04 MB)

Instrument

Takahashi FSQ-106ED @ f/5.0 (530 mm F.L.) Captured at 2.1 arcsec/pixel.  Shown at 3.88 and 9.32 arcsec/pixel.

Mount

Losmandy G11 with Gemini L4 v1.0

Camera

SBIG STF-8300M Self Guiding Package w/ mono ST-i, using an AstroDon 5nm Ha filter.

Acquisition Data

8/6/2015 to 9/17/2015 Chino Valley, AZ... with CCD Commander & CCDSoft.

Exposure

 Ha 240 min. (16 x 15 min. bin 1x1)

Software &
Processing Notes

  • CCDSoft, CCDStack, PixInsight and Photoshop CS6.

  • CCDStack to calibrate the sub exposures.

  • PixInsight processing includes registering and stacking, non-linear stretching with HistogramTransformation and LocalHistogramEqualization.

  • PhotoShop for final touch-up.

  • Noiseware 5, a PhotoShop plug-in.

  • Click here for the color-mapped NarrowBand images
    Click here for the RGB image

Comment

North is to the top.

Sharpless 115 stands just north and west of Deneb, the alpha star of the constellation Cygnus, the Swan. Noted in the 1959 catalog by astronomer Stewart Sharpless (as Sh2-115) the emission nebula lies along the edge of one of the outer Milky Way's giant molecular clouds, about 7,500 light-years away. Hot stars in star cluster Berkeley 90 power the nebular glow. The cluster stars are likely only 100 million years old or so and are still embedded in Sharpless 115.
Source: NASA APOD

The small bight object, near the top, is Abell 71. The nebula is also cataloged as PK 085+04.1, PN G084.9+04.4 and Sh 2-116. Initially cataloged as a planetary nebula, the object is now recognized as an HII region.