Observation by David Davies: NGC 1514, The Crystal Ball Nebula

Uploaded by

David Davies

Observer

David Davies

Observed

2023 Feb 07 - 23:39

Uploaded

2023 Feb 23 - 17:43

Objects

The Crystal Ball Nebula (NGC1514)

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Constellation

Taurus

Field centre

RA: 04^h09^m
Dec: +30°46'
Position angle: -0°12'

Field size

0°30' × 0°22'

Equipment

10" Ritchey-Chretien telescope
X 0,7 reducer to give 1400mm focal length
QSI 683 camera
SW EQ8 mount

Exposure

24 x 2-minutes RGB, 15 x 10-min H-a and OIII

Location

Cambridge, UK

Target name

NGC 1514, The Crystal Ball Nebula

Title

NGC 1514, The Crystal Ball Nebula

About this image

I've never thought of myself as an observer of planetary nebulae. I've considered them too small and faint for my modest optics. However, during the lockdown, I was given NGC1514 as a target during an online EAA session and was impressed by this lovely object; my one-shot colour camera showed the core of this object in just a few minutes. So I decided to have another shot at it to see what my ageing QSI 683 camera would make of it.

NGC1514 has a relatively bright core region but is surrounded by a very faint halo, close to my sky background in brightness. In contrast, there are several 8th-magnitude stars in the field of view, and I did not want to saturate these. Therefore, image capture was in two phases. I captured the RGB data with 2-minute exposures, and the camera set to low gain. I then captured H-alpha and OIII data with 10-minute exposures and the camera on high gain. I combined the two sets of images using the method of Kayron Mercieca at Light Vortex Astronomy, with the addition of a few tweaks of my own using modern tools.

Software: NINA, Astro Pixel Processor, Pixinsight, StarXterminator, NoiseXterminator, BlurXterminator, Photoshop

Files associated with this observation

NGC1514.jpg (746.2 kB)

Like this image

Alan Thomas, David Basey, Peter Mulligan, Callum Potter, Simon Paul Davis, Graham Winstanley, Manolo_Rodriguez, Tim Haymes, Hugh Allen

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