December 26/27, 2014, Port Mouton, Nova Scotia
Canon T3i (modified), 8″ Sky-Watcher Newtonian Astrograph, CGEM mount, Tele Vue coma corrector, Sky Watcher 80mm ED and Orion Starshooter with PhD for guiding.
26 180-second raw photos, 10 180-second darks ISO 1600
6 600-second raw photos through H-alpha filter, 10 600-second darks ISO 1600
Each photo stacked and processed initially in Images Plus. Stretched in IP Digital Development. Noise reduced in each stacked image using Star Tools. Each stacked image cropped and saved as JPG. Images rotated and combined in GIMP II.
This photograph captures the emission nebulosity that surrounds an open cluster called the Christmas Tree Cluster and the dark nebula called the Cone Nebula; combined they are referred to as NGC 2264. Having three different object types in the same photograph makes it interesting and a challenge to photograph and process. To capture the faint emission nebulosity, I used an H-alpha filter and took 10 10-minute exposures. I combined these with 26 3-minute exposures captured by my modded T3i. I had to rotate and position the two stacked images before combining.