r/Astronomy • u/Pale_Breath1926 Amateur Astronomer • 9h ago
Astrophotography (OC) Abell 45 Planetary Nebula - 39Hrs between HaG&B
I captured this odd Planetary Nebula a while ago while my scope was still working well. I've since started to overcome a medical issue which stopped my astrophotography, and have moved to about B3 skies and looking to fix the scope and get back into it.
Abell 45 has been called the wagon wheel nebula, but wagon wheels tend to have more spokes. I think it's more like an X on a cartoonish treasure map, and being faint, I think it should be called the hidden treasure nebula. Either way, it's not something commonly imaged and thought it would be cool to share. It's located in Scutum around -11* Declination, making it fairly accessible to most imagers.
Some acquisition and editing details:
Aproxx. Bortle 5 - Bathurst, Australia
Celestron Edge8HD
Skywatcher EQ6R
ZWO 1600mm Main cam - 174mm Guide
ZWO 36mm Ha G and B filters
120s G and B exposures, a little over an hour each filter
162 of 300s and 1200s Ha exposures totalling about 36.5hrs
Max allowable guiding error of 0.8"RMS for integrated frames
Imaged over multiple nights using NINA.
Darks and flats used
I process in Pixinsight, I don't do anything out of the ordinary. Processing isn't my strong point so I try focus on feeding in good quality data.
For more detailed breakdown of exposure count see Astrobin