The
Cocoon Nebula in Cygnus IC5146
Click on the image to see it
at 2x resolution
From Wikipedia: IC 5146 (also Caldwell
19, Sh 2-125, Barnard 168, and the Cocoon
Nebula) is a reflection /
emission nebula and Caldwell
object in the constellation Cygnus. The NGC
description refers to IC 5146 as a cluster of 9.5 mag stars involved in
a bright and dark nebula. The cluster is also known as Collinder
470. It shines at magnitude +10.0/+9.3/+7.2. Its
celestial coordinates are RA 21h 53.5m , dec
+47° 16′. It is located near
the naked-eye star Pi Cygni, the open
cluster NGC 7209 in Lacerta, and the bright
open cluster M39. The cluster is about
4,000 ly away, and the central star that lights it formed
about 100,000 years ago; the nebula is about
12 arcmins across, which is equivalent to a span of 15 light
years.
Image
Data:
Scope: AP155EDF
Camera: Apogee Moravian G4 (16803 ccd) w Astrodon Gen II Filters
Mount: Paramount MX
14 x 10 minutes Luminance
10/10/10 x 10min of RGB
Lucknow, Ontario, Canada
Sept 2023
Images acquired using CCD-Commander and TheSkyX
Reduction and all pre-processing in PixInsight.
RGB processed in PixInsight using SPCC, BlurX, NoiseX then
HistogramTransformation, Curves and a masked Saturation boost.
Luminance processed in PixInsight using BlurX,
NoiseX then
HistogramTransformation, Curves and LocalHistogramTransformation (for
contrast)
LRGBCombine in PI
Separate Starless Luminance produced in PI with StarXTerminator
Moved to Photoshop where the starless Luminance was layered on the LRGB
using Screen then masked and painted in everywhere except over top of
the Cocoon. Additinal processing for noise, colour and contrast.
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