Flaming Star, IC405

Nov 2022

Imaging: TS80 apo, ZWO ASI533 (100 gain, -10C), Neo+LeNh
Subs: (Neo)738x60s (12h), (LeNh)185x180s (9h), darks, flats, and darkflats
Software: NINA, Phd2, PixInsight, NoiseXT, StarXT

(Additional notes below)

Gallery

Notes

The Flaming Star is a combination emission and reflection nebula. It surrounds a bright star which according to Wikipedia is a bluish variable star (i.e. the star has variable brightness). It is approximately 1500 LYs from us and the nebula itself is about 5 LYs across.

This was my astronomy forum's target for the month and, fortunately, it happens to be in a part of the sky easily visible from my backyard. My image here is actually a combination of two sets of images. One set used a filter than gives good contrast on the reds from the Ha of the emission nebula. But in these images, almost none of the reflection nebula shows. In the second set of images, a different filter captures the blue reflection nebula, but on these the rest is not very detailed. The two sets were stacked and processed separately and then combined. This brings out both the "red flame" and "smoky blue" aspects of this nebula that gives it the name.