Gamma Cygni and Surrounding Nebulosity
Copyright 2005 Hap Griffin
This is the heart
of the constellation of Cygnus, almost directly overhead in the early evenings
of October. The bright star in the middle is Gamma Cygni, the middle star
in the asterism in Cygnus called the "Northern Cross". This star
is also known as Sadir and is easily visible to the naked eye on a clear
night. The surrounding nebulosity is part of the much larger hydrogen
cloud known as IC 1318. The two bright parts to the left in this picture
have also been given the common name of the "Butterfly Nebula".
Open star cluster NGC 6910 can be seen near the top center.
Date/Location:
October 1, 2005 Griffin/Hunter
Observatory Bethune, SC
Instrument: Canon 350D Digital SLR (modified) through Orion
80mm ED80 APO refractor
Focal Ratio: f4.5 w/ Meade 0.6 focal reducer
Guiding: Auto via SBIG ST-237 through 10" Meade LX-200
Conditions: Clear with passing clouds
Weather: 70 F
Exposure: 30 minutes total (6 x 5 minutes) @ ISO 800
Filters: Baader UV/IR Block
Processing: Focused and captured with DSLRFocus.
RAW to TIFF conversion, frame calibrations, alignment, Digital Development,
Adaptive Richardson_Lucy deconvolution, scaling and JPEG conversion with ImagesPlus.
Color correction with Photoshop 6. Noise reduction with NeatImage.