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Scope: Megrez II APO (w/WO FFIII) at f/5.9, Location: Blair Valley, Anza Borrego Desert, CA 9 February, 2008, Camera: Artemis285
Exposure: 8 x 10 min IRB (1x1), 4 x 10 min H-Alpha (1x1), 6 x 5 min RGB Exposures (2x2).
Processing: Images were captured with Artemis Capture (as FITs). Aligned/stacked and dark subtracted in Astroart with Sigma Combine. IRB, H-Alpha and Color channels were scaled and color balanced in Astroart. Channels were co-registered in Astroart. Central Gradient removal was performed in Astroart. Luminance construction consisted of the IRB exposure with very slight enhancement from the H-Alpha exposure. The H-Alpha exposure did not really have any additional data of significance. Curves and Levels applied in Photoshop to the Luminance construction to optimize object features. Final LRGB combine was done in Photoshop using Luminance Layering in LAB color Space. A color adjustment made to correct the color at low RGB signal levels. A slight noise reduction was applied on the final image with SGBNR in PixInsight LE. Final Image size is approximately 1040x1392
North is up in this image. The field in this image is in the constellation of Monoceros. The objects in this image are NGC2170 (central), NGC2182 (left). There is a dim nebulous region in the lower central part of the image is LBN 999. This general area is known as the Monoceros R2 Association. It consists of many newly formed stars and a large molecular cloud. There are reflection nebula and sparse emission nebulua in this area. The distance to Earth is estimated to be a relatively near 2,700 light years. The Horizontal FOV is64'.
Image center is located approximately - Equatorial 2000: RA: 06h 08m 22s Dec: -06°25'08"