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Scope: 180mm SLR Lens (Vivitar) at f/3.5 Location: Del Mar, CA 13 Sept. and 6 Oct. 2005 Camera: Artemis285
Exposure: 10 x 480 sec H-Alpha (1x1), 8 x 90 sec Baader IR Block Filter (1x1), 8 x 60 sec RGB Exposures (2x2).
Processing: Images were captured with Artemis Capture (as FITs). Aligned/stacked in Registax 3 and saved as FITS. Luminance (IR Block), H-Alpha, and Color channels were scaled and rough color balanced in Astroart. Channels were co-registered in Astroart. The H-Alpha exposure was the main exposure for the luminance construction. The 90 second IR Block exposure data was used to fill in missing edge stars on the full frame. The Nebula was extracted from the HA exposure (minus stars and blended to the red channel to provide color for the nebula. Final LRGB combine was done in Photoshop using Luminance Layering (or LLRGB). Color balancing and final touches were done in Photoshop. Selective sharpening was done to enhance contrast using the Don Waid method. SGBNR was used to smooth background noise on the final result. Final Image size is approximately 1392x1040.
All exposures in this image were guided; North is up in this image. IC 1396 is located in the constellation of Cepheus and stretches about 3 degrees in diameter. It is one of the larger emission nebula complexes in the night sky. The ridged feature in the center -right on the nebula is sometimes called the "Elephant Trunk" nebula. This image replaces an earlier image which can be seen in the Archives here. Horizontal FOV is 180'
Image center is located approximately - Equatorial 2000: RA: 21h 39m 06s Dec: +57°30'00"