u/MountainPlayTattoo

my project for this summer with the s30pro:
doing 8-10h per panel. now i am at 26.8h in total and i am pretty excited how far i’ll get this year ☺️

🔭 Telescope: ZWO Seestar S50
🎛️ Mount: EQ mode
🌠 Sky: Bortle 4
🕒 Exposure time:
LP filter for nebula: 814 x 30 s (407min/6,7h)
IR-cut filter for stars: 393 x 30 s (196,5min/3,2h)
🎞️ Stacked with: PixInsight
🧪 Processing: PixInsight
📚 Object information:
Barnard 163 in the center, Barnard 367 in the upper right and Barnard 197 in the lower left are part of the dark dust structures within the large emission nebula IC 1396 in the constellation Cepheus. IC 1396 is a very extended nebula located roughly 2,400 to 3,000 light-years away. Besides the famous Elephant’s Trunk Nebula, it contains many smaller dark nebulae that stand out as black silhouettes against the reddish glow of hydrogen gas.
🔍 Special features:
These dark nebulae almost look like holes in the star field, but they are not empty regions. They are dense clouds of cold dust and molecular gas. Because IC 1396 glows red in the background, these dark structures become especially prominent. Barnard 163 is one of the more striking dark nebulae in this region. In images, its curved and compact shape can resemble a small dark figure or animal in front of the red nebula background. NASA describes it as so dense that visible light can barely pass through it. Inside such cold clouds, gas and dust can condense and eventually form new stars.

Seestar S30pro

9,3h (1153x30s)

eq mode

bortle 4

stacked and processed in pixinsight

i was really surprised by the OIII data for that amount of integration time

Seestar S50
EQ mode
RGB: 1542x30s (12,85h)
LP: 826x30s (6,8h)
stacked and processed with Pixinsight.