Crescent Nebula

Target details

The Crescent Nebula sits in Cygnus, about 5,000 light-years away. It's powered by WR 136 (HD 192163), a Wolf-Rayet star – a massive star late in its life. Between 250,000 and 400,000 years ago, when it was a red giant, it shed a slow wind of gas. Now its much faster stellar wind is slamming into that older material, creating a shell and two shock waves, one moving outwards and one moving inwards. The inward shock heats the gas so much that it gives off X-rays.

Capture details

Data captured over 5 nights between 21st & 28th September, 2018.
39x 10 minute exposures with Ha filter.
63x 10 minute exposures with Oiii filter.

Total Exposure 17 hours.

Equipment details

Skywatcher Quattro 200 CF
NEQ6 Pro
Atik 428EX Mono
Skywatcher ST-80
QHY5L-II

Processing details

This image was processed in Pixinsight & Lightroom.
Calibration and Registration using Batch PreProcessing script.
Dynamic Crop - Cropped to remove any black edges.
Dynamic Background Extraction - Applied to remove background gradients.
Multiscale Linear Transform - Noise reduction.
Histrogram Transformation - To stretch the image and bring out the data.
Curves Transformation - To increase contrast.
UnsharpMask - To sharpen detail in core, with sharpening mask in place to target nebula.
Curves Transformation - To boost saturation.

Export as JPEG and import into Lightroom.
Increase contrast (+25)
Reduce Highlights (-10)

Export final JPEG for upload.