NGC 1499

Other image sizes:

PERSEUS - EMISSION NEBULA - CALIFORNIA NEBULA

NGC 1499 - THE CALIFORNIA NEBULA IN PERSEUS

About this Object:

One of the nicer emission objects in the winter Milky Way is NGC 1499, a large nebula popularly known as the "California Nebula" because of its shape. The object spans over 3 arc degrees of the night sky and rests near the magnitude 4 star, 46 (Xi) Persei, commonly called Menkib, which is the bright star shown in this image. NGC 1499 is a tough object visually because of its size. The best bet is to use a wide-field, high contrast telescope. This is also one of the few objects that benefits from the hydrogen-beta filter, the one commonly used to see the Horsehead Nebula. This particular image uses a special hydrogen-alpha filter to bring in some of the fainter details in the nebulosity itself.

Location: The Ballauer Observatory near Azle, Texas (Ha info) and Eldorado Star Party near Eldorado, Texas (RGB)
Date: September 10, 2004 (Ha info) and October 14, 2004 (RGB)
Scope/mount: Takahashi FSQ-106 @ f/5 and Tak NJP mount
Camera: SBIG STL-6303E, self-guided
Filter: Custom Scientific 4.5 nm Hydrogen Alpha
Exposure Info: HaRGB image - 45:40:30:30 minutes (15 min. subexposures for luminance; 5 min. subexposures for RGB; all exposures unbinned).
Processing Info: Darks, flats, deblooming, alignment, stacking, and color combine in MaxIm DL 4. Digital Development in MaxIm DL 4. Ha and Red channel blending, final HaRGB combine, Curves, Levels, selective unsharp mask selective gaussian blur, and cropping in Photoshop CS.

Extra notes: The red channel is blended 50/50 with the Ha luminance. The combined, or "enhanced" red channel is then used in the new RGB. Ha information is used once again at 34% as luminance layer.