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Scope: Megrez II at f/5, Location: Dos Picos Park, Ramona, CA 21 January, 2006 Camera: Artemis285
Exposure: 3 x 420 sec and 5 x 660 sec Luminance exposures with IR Block filter. 8 x 120 sec RGB Exposures (2x2 bin)
Processing: Images were captured with Artemis Capture (as FITs). Aligned/stacked in Registax 3 and saved as FITS. Luminance, and Color channels were scaled and rough color balanced in Astroart. Channels were co-registered in Astroart. In Photoshop, the longer luminance exposure was the main exposure for the luminance construction - the 420 sec Luminance was blended with the 660 sec exposure for improved star size and core detail. Curves and Levels were applied in Photoshop to optimize object appearance. Final LRGB combine was done in Photoshop using Luminance Layering (or LLRGB). Color balancing and final touches were done in Photoshop. SGBNR was used to smooth background noise on the luminance construction and on final result. Selective layer sharpening was performed on prominent nebula features. Final Image size is approximately 1370x1006.
All exposures in this image were guided; North is to the left in this image. M78 is one of the brightest reflection nebulas in our night sky. It is a cloud of interstellar gas and dust illuminated by nearby bright stars. It is about 1,600 light years distant from Earth. This image replaces an earlier image that can be seen in the Archives here. The Horizontal FOV is approximately 75'.
Image center is located approximately - Equatorial 2000: RA: 05h 46m 44s Dec: +00°05'22"