Wizard Nebula NGC 7380 (17 September 2019)
This is my astrophotograph of the Wizard Nebula. It is a cloud of interstellar gas surrounding the open star cluster, NGC 7380. It lies about 7200 light years away from Earth in the constellation Cepheus. Although it is basically impossible to observe this deep sky object visually from my back garden, I can photograph it using astrophotography equipment. The interplay of stars, gas, and dust has created a shape that looks something like a wizard; hence, the name. If you can’t see the wizard, click here to reveal the outline.
I’m also really happy with this photograph because, after a lot of tinkering with my telescope and camera equipment, it shows I’ve finally fixed all the optical artefacts from the lens spacers and camera. The stars look like the glowing orbs they actually are in this photo, instead of like pinched triangles (see last photo)!
Frames
- 84× 130-s light frames
- All calibration frames from 8 September 2019
Equipment
- Explore Scientific ED 102 mm apo f/7 refractor
- Sky-Watcher EQ5 PRO SynScan GOTO equatorial mount
- Altair GPCAM3 290C colour camera (with UVIR window fitted)
- Altair 60mm guide scope
- Altair GPCAM2 AR0130 mono guide camera
Software
- SharpCap Pro
- PHD2
- DeepSkyStacker
- Photoshop
