NGC 896 - wonderfuluniverse.de

NGC 896 from my own backyard and from Banon

In 2010, during a stay in Banon, I imaged the emission nebula NGC 896 using my DSLR equipment. The one-shot color data already revealed the bright hydrogen glow and the embedded young stars illuminating this active star-forming region.

NGC 896 is part of the larger IC 1805 complex in the constellation Cassiopeia. Often referred to as the “Fish Head Nebula,” it represents the western portion of the Heart Nebula and is energized by radiation from the massive stars of the Melotte 15 cluster at the center of the complex.

In 2015, I revisited the object using a CCD camera and captured dedicated H-alpha data. By combining the narrowband Hα exposure with the earlier 2010 OSC dataset, I was able to significantly enhance the contrast and fine filamentary structures within the nebula. The added Hα signal emphasized the intricate shock fronts and ionization boundaries, revealing far more detail in the glowing hydrogen clouds than the original color image alone.

This combination of DSLR broadband data and later narrowband CCD imaging nicely illustrates how datasets taken years apart can complement each other, leading to a much deeper and more structurally refined final image.

For the combination of the 2010 and 2015 data, the calibration and registration, as well as the final image processing, were performed entirely in PixInsight. The result was as follows:

The images were taken with the following equipment:

Date: 2015
Location: Krefeld, Germany
Telescope: 10″ Newton ohne Namen
Focal length [mm]: 1000
Focal ratio: 3.9
Mount: Losmandy G11
Camera: Moravian FW8300
Filter: Hα
Exposure time [min]: 220
Resolution: 1.11″/px

For the 2010 data the calibration and registration was done with DeepSkyStacker and the final processing was done with PixInsight. The result was as follows: