Helping Hand Nebula in LRGB (Cass) - Oct 2022
Planewave CDK12.5 - AIS6200MM
A-P 1100 GTO AE, Antlia Pro 3nm BB filters
L filter: (50 x 180s exposures, Bin 2x2, Gain 100)
R,G,B filters (3 x 20 x 180s exposures, Bin 2x2, Gain 100)
Total Integration Time = 5.5 hours
There is a lot going on in this portion of Cassiopeia, including lots of dust reflection (blue) and dark (red/brown/dark) nebulosity.
THe brightest star in the image is SU Cass, a yellow giant (19 solar mass), Cepheid variable star. This star reflects light off the dust surrounding it and the light scattering makes it appear blue. The reflected light around and lit up by SU Cass is catalogued as vdB9. Many of the stars in this image, are surrounded by blue reflected light (even when the stars themselves are not blue).
Several dark nebula are also in the image, including LD1355 & 1357, comprising the "Helping Hand" just above SU Cass, and LDN1358 further to the right in the image.
To be honest, much more exposure time (preferably with a fast telescope) is required to truly do this target justice. However, I thought I would use it to test out the BlurXterminator AI software by RC Astro. This software deblurs the image to avoid the star artifacts caused by deconvolution. I picked an image where the the stars were difficult to remove, which usually deters me from doing deconvolution. I have to say, that BlurX did a great job.