The Reaper

Featured as the 23 December, 2021 AAPOD2

Image Details:

The LDN 673 and 684 area in Aquila, two areas of Dark Nebulae 600 light years away. This nebula is located in the main band of the Milky Way and as such the background is filled with red and yellow stars, giving the few blue stars (which make up to perhaps 1% of average galactic stellar populations) beautiful color contrast. Dark Nebulae are complexes of gas and dust thick enough to block most or all visible light of stars within or behind them, and since this area is glowing from the ambient starlight of the Milky Way, this makes the nebula much more prominent.

Equipment:

• William Optics Star71-II Petzval APO (345mm Focal Length, F/4.9)

• ZWO ASI1600MM-P, ZWO Filters

• Hypertuned Celestron CGEM-II

• Autoguiding: Orion 50mm Guidescope + ZWO ASI224MC

Exposures:

• Luminance: 183 x 120” (Total: 6h 6m)

• Red, Green, Blue: 73, 69, 69 x 120” (Total: 7h 2m)

Misc Details:

• Capture Software: AstrophotographyTool, PHD2 (guiding), Celestron CPWI (mount control), Pegasus Powerbox (dew heater control, power management)

• Processing Software: PixInsight

• Taken from: Okie-Tex Star Party, Bortle 1

• Capture Dates: 2-7 October 2021

Annotation

A Demonstration of the title, for those not familiar with video games