@astro_nevins

Crescent Nebula This is an image of the Crescent Nebula (NGC 6888) in the constellation Cygnus. The bright star at its center is a Wolf-Rayet star driving an incredibly strong stellar wind, and this wind impacts other gas and dust, causing it to glow. This image was taken through my galaxy rig, which poses some interesting problems for nebulae. To bring out the nebula I have to use a pretty harsh filter, but right now I have to put that on the front of the entire camera/guiding setup, which makes it very difficult to find a star bright enough for my telescope to track. That makes long exposures hard, but for faint targets like this long exposures are almost required. I had to push the data here pretty hard, as you can see by the noise around the edges. Compare that with my Bodes' Galaxy image, which has hardly any noise at all - not having to use a harsh filter there gives much better signal on the target. I'm hoping to get a filter drawer soon that will let me keep the guide camera unfiltered, which should make long exposures easier. Astrotech 8" RC #ZWO ASI294MC #Celestron CGEM DX Processed in DSS, StarTools, and GIMP #astronomy #astrophotography #crescent #nebula #ngc6888 #wolfrayet #star #space #telescope #highpointscientific #OPTeam #agenaastro