NGC 1499, The California Nebula,
In Perseus
The California Nebula is another huge nebula, 140 x 40 arcmin, and does not fit the field of view of most telescopes. It was an excellent test target for my recently acquired Nikkor 180 mm telephoto lens, set up on the CCD camera with the Mandel Adapter. Visually, this is a very dim nebula but it is easy to pick up in red or hydrogen alpha light and a CCD camera.
| Date | 2003-02-05 |
| Optics |
Nikkor 180 mm lens at f/4 with ST-10XME CCD camera (Mandel Adapter) at -15 °C piggy-backed on the A-P 1200 GTO mount. Guided with the ST-4 guider on a guide scope. |
| Exposure |
12 x 10 min H-alpha (luminosity) plus R 7x10, G and B 6x10 min (all1x1 binning). SBIG filters in SBIG CFW-8 filter wheel. |
| Processing |
Raw frames debloomed with Wodaski's Debloomer plug-in. Stacked and RGB combined in MaxIm 3.08 with R=1.2, G=1.0, B=1.65 weighting. Stretched with levels and curves in PhotoShop 7.0. |