char32geek\Images\IC1311

The open star cluster is at the top right corner of the bow-tie looking nebula. I'd call this the bow-tie nebula, but that name is already taken. This looked like an interesting area of the sky to image. You might notice some dark dust clouds that are seen across the middle, then run down from below the star cluster. I was happy to be able to capture those details through the light pollution. The reason the background looks blotchy is because it's not normal 'empty' space. Nearly the entire field of view is ionized hydrogen gas. The way I processed it brought out the brighter areas, leaving the dimmer areas to look like very faint dust clouds. Normally this would be more 'red' but I like this color palette better.

_{Taken with my William Optics z61, ASI 183MC, and GEM28 mount}

_{reprocess of the above data}