Monday, October 31, 2022

A Ghost for Halloween

The Ghost Nebula in Cassiopeia makes a perfect object for Halloween season imaging. It is high in the sky and is a fairly easy imaging target. The nebula is being bombarded by radiation from nearby Gamma Cassiopeiae, the bright star at the center of the constellation's distinctive "W." This stellar wind is resposible for the fantail shape of the nebula, which looks like a "ghost sheet."

The object is in a heavily starred region, so I've included starless and starred images. for one of the starred images, I tried to reduce the number of stars by using the "scratches and dust" noise reduction option in Affinity. It does reduce the number of stars, but it also significantly reduces the quality of the image.

Happy Halloween, all!





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