NGC1499,

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39. NGC1499, California Nebula

Distance: 1000 ly
App. Magnitude: 6
App. Dimensions: 2.5 degrees long (cf. telescope field of view 119')

Notes: That very bright star on the lower left is probably Zeta Persei, "a B1 Ib white supergiant which shines at mag 2.83", but surprisingly, Z-Persei is not the star that illuminates the nebula. That light comes from "Xi Persei, a hot blue-white main sequence star of spectral type O7e" (spider.seds.org/spider/Misc/n1499.html, page viewed on February 13, 2013).

Technical Notes: While Wikipedia has surprisingly little information on NGC1499, their note does remark on the low surface brightness. Our next attempt at imaging such a large, dim emission nebula should involve an H-beta filter and a field flattener to fix those eggy stars on the margins.

We processed the stack in Nebulosity using two different methods: We first used "Levels / Power Stretch" followed by "Curves". That produced a saturated image with a lot of detail on the edges and in interior cavities, but it aggravated the coma around Zeta Persei and it has low contrast. The second method was to use "Digital Development" followed by "Curves" with "Keller Ha". That produced better contrast and definition of major features. Zoom in/out with ⌘↑(+/-) (Mac), ctrl (+/-) (PC).

Location: Nevada City
Date: February 12, 2013
Scope: Stellarvue 80ED
Mount: CGEM
Guide scope: Orion 80mm x 400 mm ShortTube
Guide camera: Orion Starshoot
Guide program: PHD Guiding
Camera: Canon T1i, IR filter mod by Hap Griffin
ISO: 800
Exposures: 9 at 20 min each, darks: 16, biases: none, flats: none
Processing software: Nebulosity
Processing: stacked and aligned, demosaic and square, digital development (or levels / power stretch), color background, curves, color balance

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