It's looking like Mother Nature is going to do it to Southwestern astrophotographers again! An Albuquerque low is going to bring rain, thunderstorms, and clouds at every dark sky location within reasonable driving distance during the upcoming New Moon. So...imaging from the front patio this weekend became as must do.
NGC6992 Eastern Veil Nebula
NGC6992 Eastern Veil Nebula
After a week of clear nights and a waning moon (72% on Monday when I captured the Cave Nebula, 61.9% Tuesday, 51.6% Wednesday, 41.6% Thursday, to a late rising (0012MDT) 32.1% on Friday night) where I had promised Paul I would get some sleep to be rested for an important work meeting on Friday, I was chomping at the bit to take advantage of Friday’s clear night. Especially since the forecast for next week, when we are planning our dark skies trip had turned south – rain storms and clouds everywhere – most likely cancelling that trip.
I began the night imaging NGC6992 Eastern Veil Nebula, initially planning to image that all night. But when I looked at the time it set – 0330MDT – and knowing it was a Saturday morning when I could image until the end of nautical twilight, I opted for IC59/IC63 The Ghosts of Cassiopeia as the second target for the night.
The “rest of the story” on NGC6992 is in the gallery at: https://beersastrophotography.com/gallery/ngc6992-eastern-veil-nebula/
IC59 & IC63 Ghosts of Cassiopeia
This is certainly an “add it to (or keep it on) the list of targets to reshoot in dark skies.” The LeX filter is obviously too extreme for this Mag=13.33 target to have any of the “mostly blue” coming through. I’ll post it on the website as a placeholder for better images to come…
On Friday night, as I was setting up the sequence and saw the time NGC6992 set – 0330MDT – and knowing it was a Saturday morning when I could image until the end of nautical twilight, I opted for IC59/IC63 Ghosts of Cassiopeia as the second target for the night. I imaged Veil until approximately 0230MDT, when the Ghosts were past their meridian flip, and switched to them for the rest of the night.
This image was added to the existing gallery page for the Ghosts of Cassiopeia, (again as a “other images of this target” placeholder) that features a multi-session image that was reprocessed earlier this year. The data gathered last year and reprocessed in January 2023 still is not great, but it’s better than this weekend’s result. There will be more time, in dark skies, spent on this target! In the meantime, take a look at the rest of the story here: https://beersastrophotography.com/gallery/ic59-ic63-ghosts-of-cassiopeia/