Photo of the Week for September 30, 2016
Cepheus the king rules the northeast sky on autumn evenings. Despite the constellation’s regal stature in mythology, it’s often overlooked because it lacks even a single Messier object. But there are treasures aplenty—especially if you seek them with a camera. One of the crown jewels of Cepheus, at least for imagers, is the expansive patch of nebulosity catalogued as IC1396. It’s situated just south of Mu (μ) Cephei—a stellar gem better known as Herschel’s Garnet Star, owing to its ruddy hue.
Faron Dillon captured this image of IC1396 from his driveway in Richmond Hill, Ontario. “The skies here are light polluted,” he says. “However, with narrowband filters and a monochromatic CCD camera, I’m able to capture some features that would otherwise be impossible.” For this photo, Faron used a TMB92SS 92mm apochromatic refractor telescope fitted with a William Optics focal reducer and a Starlight Xpress SXVR-H18 camera to acquire a total of 14½ hours of exposure data shot through H-alpha and OIII filters.
