Instrument

Takahashi FSQ-106ED @ f/5.0 (530 mm F.L.) Captured at 2.1 arcsec/pixel.  Shown at 3.60 and 8.65 arcsec/pixel.

Mount

Paramount MyT

Camera

SBIG STF-8300M Self Guiding Package w/ mono ST-i, using AstroDon E-Series RGB  and Ha filters.

Acquisition Data

8/29/2016 to 9/16/2016  Chino Valley, AZ with CCD Commander & CCDSoft. 

Exposure

 RGB ratios are 1.00, 0.98, 0.98

Click here for the color-mapped NarrowBand image
Click here for the b/w Ha image

Software

• CCDSoft, PixInsight & Photoshop CS6.

• eXcalibrator v5.0 for (g:r) color balancing, using 235 stars from the APASS database.

• PixInsight processing includes calibration, registering, stacking, RGB creation, gradient removal, non-linear stretching with HistogramTransformation .

• Noiseware 5, a PhotoShop plug-in.

• PhotoShop for final touch up.

Comment

North is to the top.

Sh2-171 is about 2700 light-years from Earth, in the constellation Cepheus. The emission cloud is lit and ionized by the young star cluster Berkeley 59.

The image also contains six bright and eight dark nebulae as catalogued by Beverly Lynds. After taking a close look, many of the entries seem to be just for the sake of making the catalog larger and have little consequence, if any.