Photo of the Week for September 1, 2017
Light pollution? No problem! Believe it or not, this wonderfully detailed image of the Elephant’s Trunk Nebula (IC1396A) in Cepheus was captured under the bright lights of Toronto, Ontario. “The wonders of narrowband imaging!” succinctly explains astrophotographer John Erik Minerva. By passing only the faint emissions from the nebula, these filters allow astrophotographers to produce remarkable images like this one even from badly light-polluted locations.
The nebula portrait combines a total of more than 12½ hours of exposure data acquired through H-alpha, OIII, and SII (Sulphur II) narrowband filters. John Erik used a Celestron C6-N 6-inch f/5 reflector telescope (fitted with a Baader MPCC Mark II coma corrector) and Starlight Express Trius SX814 CCD camera riding on a Sky-Watcher NEQ6 Pro mount.
