SharpCap Forums

IC 289, a small (0,58 x 0,58 arcmin) planetary nebula in Cassiopeia. It has an apparent magnitude of 13 and is at around 4700 lightyears.

I used the uncooled Zwo ASI385MC planet camera because it's way easier and quicker with setting up: the last few weeks it really is capturing between the clouds
But it's a great camera for planetary nebulae because of the small FOV. Downside is of course the noise but that's something that doesn't really bother me.

Resolution : 0.385 arcsec/px
Focal : 2010 mm
Field of view : 12' 25" x 07' 1.74"

Bortle 6/7
Meade LX200 8" f/10 ACF OTA
Ioptron CEM25EC mount (no guiding)
Baader IR/UV Cut filter
Zwo ASI385MC camera

Captured with SharpCap Pro / White balance R50 B50
130 x 60 sec / Gain 120 / Offset 20
20 x darks, 50x flats and 50x darkflats

Stacked with DeepSkyStacker

SiriL and Photoshop
Siril: Crop, Background Extraction, Histogram Transformation
Photoshop: Levels, Camera Raw Filter (blacks, clarity, color, noise reduction), Astronomy Tools Actions-set (Local Contrast Enhancement)

Nice choice of object for your long focus! Don't think that I have seen such clear purple in a planetary nebula before ? Quite intriguing. Suppose it must come from the particular way OIII, HII and maybe H gamma emissions all combine with dust scattering in this particular object for our line of sight. Anyway certainly quite striking
Tim

Thanks Tim!
And yes, the purple is striking. I never check online for captures before I start to capture and process, this to be unbiased
So when I started processing and this showed up, I did check and it really is purple.

Menno