Narrowband imaging

Equipment

Astro-Physics StarFire GTX 130mm f/6.3 (3.5") · Player One Poseidon-M Pro · Antlia 3nm Narrowband H-alpha 36 mm · Antlia 3nm Narrowband Oxygen III 36 mm · Antlia 3nm Narrowband Sulfur II 36 mm · Antlia V-Pro Blue 36 mm · Antlia V-Pro Green 36 mm · Antlia V-Pro Red 36 mm · Astro-Physics Mach1 GTO · DeepSkyDad Flap Panel (FP1) · Lunatico Astronomia CloudWatcher · Optec FocusLynx Dual-Focus Controller · Optec ThirdLynx QuickSync FTX40 · Pegasus Astro Powerbox Advance · Player One Phoenix Wheel 7x36mm · Adobe Photoshop · Han K. Astrometric STAcking Program (ASTAP) · Open PHD Guiding Project PHD2 · Pleiades Astrophoto PixInsight · Russell Croman Astrophotography BlurXTerminator · Russell Croman Astrophotography NoiseXTerminator · Stefan Berg Nighttime Imaging 'N' Astronomy (N.I.N.A. / NINA)

Integration

39h 45′

The Monkey Head Nebula is an interesting structure for an emission nebula because it has a bright open cluster and star forming region at the center creating strong stellar winds and intricate details and knots in the dust and gasses that form the nebula. It’s quite bright, fairly large, and thus a pretty popular target, but there’s a lot of detail and fainter nebulosity around the edges that make it a challenge to get a really good version. This nebula was the subject of a very famous close-up from the Hubble Space Telescope in 2014 to celebrate the observatory’s 24th anniversary.