NGC 7380 Wizard Nebula

Date: 11/124//2012

Description: NGC 7380 (also known as the Wizard Nebula) is an open cluster discovered by Caroline Herschel in 1787. William Herschel included his sister's discovery in his catalog, and labelled it H VIII.77. It is also known as 142 in the 1959 Sharpless catalog (Sh2-142). This reasonably largenebula is located in Cepheus [Ref. Wikipedia].

Sky Conditions:

Clear sky, medium - urban light pollution (3/4 moon)

FWHM: 2.5 - 3.5 arc sec/pixel

Imaging:

Exposure: 240 min (H-alpha, 16 x15min) at 2x2 bin using h-alpha filter

Guiding: 10 sec at 2x2 bin using NOAG

Equipment:

SBIG STF8300M CCD (RGB filters)

AT10RC at F8

Starlight Focuser 

NOAG w/SBIG ST-i guide camera

AP1200 mount

SW:

Maxim DL V5, FocusMax, Robofocus, AP ASCOM V2, SkyX, Photoshop CS4 (using Astro-Tools deep space noise reduction) -  calibration with darks, flats,  bias.


© James Providakes 2014