Kemble's Cascade



I was out experimenting with a DSLR attached to my RC recently and was browsing DSOs high in the sky.  On top of the RC I have a camera with a 135mm SLR lens to act as a viewfinder because I find it very difficult to look through the rather-small, straight-through finder on the 'scope.  I realised I could use it to image Kemble's Cascade  "a beautiful cascade of faint stars tumbling from the northwest down to the open cluster NGC 1502".  This gives a larger view than I has done previously.  Here is a reduced-size image, the full sized one can be seen here, on my web site.  I have tried to bring out the colours with some success.  I am told this cascade is clearly visible in binoculars, but I've not seen it myself.  It is in Camelopardalis, about 6° from Alpha.

The picture is a mosaic of three taken with an Imaging Source DFK 21AF04 colour camera fitted with a 135 mm SLR lens operating at f/4, mounted on an iOptron iEQ45 Pro mount.  The exposure was 27 seconds.  The background of one picture was slightly lighter than the others, so I darkened it to match, then constructed the mosaic using iMerge.  The final image was darkened again to remove the remaining background and the colour saturation increased by 30%.  
Peter


IC 1848

The Soul Nebula is an emission nebula in Cassiopeia.The object is named after the small open cluster I.C.1848 embedded within its body. The large cavities are carved out by radiation and stellar winds from the region's massive stars. Regions where gases are pushed together are thought to be the source of star formation.
This image based on the Hubble palette showing part of the nebula was taken with a SX Trius 694 on a Takahashi 106 refractor from Hatfield Woodhouse in the light of a full moon using narrowband filters.Ha 12x600s. O111 9x600s.S11 9x600s

NGC 7000

The Cygnus Wall part of the North America Nebula was photographed from Kelling Heath using a SX Trius 694 camera with a Ha filter attached to a Takahashi 106 refractor on a NEQ6 pro mount.12x600s exposures were acquired in Nebulosity, stacked in AstroArt and processed in PhotoShop.
This was a useful exercise in setting up  equipment in the field.