IC 1454 (Abell 81)
About image
IC 1454, also catalogued as Abell 81, is a faint planetary nebula in Cepheus constellation.
It is very small, only 28.2" of diameter.
The nebula is quite bright in RGB, so my initial idea was to take RGB exposures and then reinforce with Ha signal (in R channel) and OIII (in G and B channels).
But the result was not good for me, so I decided to use RGB only for the stars and to use HaOIII combination for the nebula using the usual mapping HOO.
This time the result was more pleasant to me, but I had to add more OIII exposures in order to better reveal the faint external halo.
Interesting the inner structure of the nebula, where is possible to see like two shells: even more interesting is the halo, which is round but irregular and with some "accumulations" of matter, for example on the right side (this particular is more visible with Ha).
I've taken the sky background a little darker than usual in order to let the external halo more visible.
Technical data
Optic GSO RC12 Truss - Aperture 304mm, focal lenght 2432mm, f/8
Mount 10Micron GM2000 HPSII
Camera ZWO ASI 2600 MM Pro with filter wheel 7 positions
Filters Astrodon Gen2 E-Serie Tru-Balance 50mm unmounted RGB and Ha 5nm, OIII 5nm
Guiding system ZWO OAG-L with guide camera ASI 174MM
Exposure details R 20x120" bin3 -15C gain 100
G 17x120" bin3 -15C gain 100
B 20x120" bin3 -15C gain 100
Ha 39x300" bin3 -15C gain 100
OIII 110x300" bin3 -15C gain 100
Total integration 14h19'
Acquisition Voyager, PHD2
Processing Pixinsight 1.8, Photoshop CS5, StarXTerminator, NoiseXTerminator, BlurXTerminator
SQM-L 20.55
Location Promiod (Aosta Valley, Italy), own remote observatory
Date 29 August 2024, 14 September 2024, 22 August 2025
© Roberto Marinoni 2019 - All rights reserved