ic 5146, the cocoon again, with the Explore-Levy comet hunter, 3 hours 12 minutes
click the image for a 50% pixel view

Continuing with the Explore Scientific/David Levy 6 inch Mak-Newt. The cocoon and tail, 24 eight - minute subs, acquired and calibrated
with warm pixel conversion and first color in Nebulosity, curves and gradients in Photoshop. The scope is a 152mm f/4.8 piggybacked on the 12 inch LX200 classic.
The moon was near new and the sky was near perfect for this location.... stable to an arc second, but visual magnitede of only about 4.5...

I think I am homing in on this scope, and have a better handle on the flexure. Also, for this image, I avoided the usual DDP in favor of a
series of small curve adjusments in an attempt to maintain star color. It was pretty successful I think, I didn't use any enhancement of the
stars for this, and only a slight unsharp mask (local contrast control) on the nebulosity. I think with a little more time, the H beta (or reflection cloud}
around the cocoon will show better...

Canon 350d Hap at prime, guided with a DSI pro and PHD on the 12 inch at f3.3
Julian, California - 19 September 2009