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Scope: Megrez II at f/3, Location: Dos Picos Park, Ramona, CA 3 December 2005 and Del Mar, CA, 19 December 2005, Camera: Artemis285
Exposure: 6 x 360 sec H-Alpha (1x1) (3 Dec.), 8 x 300 sec H-Alpha (1x1) (19 Dec), 7 x 60 sec RGB Exposures (2x2).
Processing: Images were captured with Artemis Capture (as FITs). Aligned/stacked in Registax 3 and saved as FITS. Luminance, H-Alpha, and Color channels were scaled and rough color balanced in Astroart. Channels were co-registered in Astroart. This image was made when my CCD was not perpendicular to the T-Thread mount (3 Dec). These exposures were combined with the later H-Alpha exposures (19 Dec) after the CCD was squared up for improved star focus along the bottom edge. Curves and Levels applied in Photoshop to optimize object features. Final LRGB combine was done in Photoshop using Luminance Layering (or LLRGB). SGBNR was used to smooth background noise on the final result. Selective layer sharpening was performed on prominent nebula features. Final Image size is approximately 1392x1040.
All exposures in this image were guided; North is up in this image. This is an extended cloud of gas and dust popularly known as the "Rosette Nebula". Within its center is the star cluster cataloged as NGC2244. Various parts of this cloud are designated NGC2237, 2238, 2239, and 2246. In the sky it is a large structure as viewed from the Earth with a diameter of about 5 full moons. It is a distance of about 5,500 light years from Earth. This image replaces an earlier image that can be seen in the Archives here. The Horizontal FOV is 125'.
Image center is located approximately - Equatorial 2000: RA: 06h 33m 09s Dec: +04°52'43"