Canon 350D Hap Griffin Baader Mod
205x60sec at iso 1600
30 Darks/Flats/Bias
Canon 70-200 f/2.8 L at 200mm and f/3.2

North is down in this image.

My poor old suburban skies are just not made for objects like this one. The histogram was about 2/3 across, even with just one minute subs, and with a whopping 205 frames, it was still very tough to work with. This is as good as I am going to get at my location with a DSLR.

IC 2118 - the "Witch Head" lies about 1000 light years away toward the constellaton Eridanus. The reflection nebula is lit mainly by the light of nearby blue supergiant Rigel which lies about 900 light years from earth and about 2.6 degrees west of the Witch Head. There is also a very slight emisson component to the nebula in the parts that are close enough to Rigel to become ionized.

November 4, 2008