Found in the constellation Cygnus
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.
Camera: Apogee U16M w Gen
II Astrodon 5nm H-Alpha filter
Scope: Planewave Instruments 12.5" CDK
Mount: Paramount ME guided with an Astrodon MMOAG and SBIG ST-402ME
Lum 23
x 10 min
RGB each 11/10/12 x 10 min
Acquired with TSX
and CCD-Commander
PixInsight Processing:
RGB: SPCC, DBE, BlurX, NoiseX, Curves, HT, DBE (again), masked Saturation Boost, DarkStructureEnhance
Luminance: BlurX, NoiseX, Curves, HT, DarkStructureEnhance
Moved to Photoshop:
High Pass Filter on the Luminance, masked to show only enhancements to the nebulosity
Layered the L onto the RGB then Curves and Selective Colour adjustments
Click on the image to see it 2x.
Here is the RGB image before Luminance was added:
Lucknow, Ontario
Sept 2023