Pacman Nebula in SHO Palette
Hydrogen Alpha (Ha)
PACMAN Nebula in SHO
Photo Capture Info:
(72) 3 Minute Exposures in Ha - 3hrs, 42mins
(103) 3 Minute Exposures in Sii - 5hrs, 9mins
(103) 3 Minute Exposures in Oiii - 5hrs, 18mins
Total Integration time: 14 hours, 9 minutes
Optical Equipment Used:
Antlia SHO Filters
Scope: Explore Scientific ED 127mm refractor
Camera: ZWO 2600mm
Guide scope: Agena Astro 60mm refractor
Guide camera: ZWO ASI120mm-S
Computerized Equipment and Software:
Mount: Losmandy G11G
Beelink Mini PC S Intel 11th Gen
Focuser: ZWO EAF (Electronically Assisted Focuser)
Filter Wheel: ZWO 7 Position
Pegasus Pocket Powerbox Micro
PixInsight for Processing
About PACMAN Nebula
The Pacman Nebula (NGC 281) is a large emission nebula that lies approximately 9,200 light years away. It is also catalogued as IC 11 and Sharpless 184 (Sh2-184). It was named the Pacman Nebula for its resemblance to Pac-Man, with his dark dust lane forms the mouth.
Sh2-184 stretches 48 light years across. It is a star-forming region that contains young stars, large dark dust lanes and Bok globules. Bok globules are small, dense dark nebulae packed with material from which new stars are formed. The dark dust lane spreads unevenly across glowing clouds of hydrogen and its appearance suggests that it being sculpted by a massive star in the background, concealed by the dark clouds.
Credit: https://www.constellation-guide.com/pacman-nebula/
The PacMan nebula resides in the wonderful constellation of Cassiopeia
Sulfur II (Sii)
Oxygen III (Oiii)
The Chair or 'W' of Cassiopeia
About Casseiopeia
Mythology:
An ancient constellation that is part of the story of Perseus and Andromeda. Cassiopeia was the mother of Andromeda, and because of her boasting that she was more beautiful than the sea nymphs, the Nereids, she was forced by the god Poseidon to sacrifice her daughter to the sea monster Cetus. Also as punishment the image of Cassiopeia was placed in the sky in such a way that during part of the year the queen appears upside down.
Astronomy Facts:
Sits in the outer Milky Way
GREAT for Binoculars!
Is Circumpolar (Seen in the northern Hemisphere year round)
Easy to show and teach to Kids "W in the sky"
Contains Open Clusters M52 and M103 (Use Binoculars and Star Charts to find them!)
PixInsight Processing Details
WBPP used for calibrating and stacking
Blur Xterminator on each filtered exposure stack
SpectrophotometricCC_SHO
SHO Narrowband Normalization
Invert Image -> SCNR -> Invert Image
Histogram Stretch to get to Linear State
Removed Stars using Star XTerminator
Used James Lamb's SHO Normalization (Pixel Math)
HDRMultiscaleTransform
Slight S-Curves Adjustment
LocalHistogramEqualization @ 25
LocalHistogramEqualization @ 75
MultiscaleLinearTransform with small values to Sharpen
Blur Xterminator to bring out more detail
Add back the Stars
ICC Profile Transformation (Ready image for the Web