Cave Nebula (Caldwell 9)


The Cave Nebula is 2400 light-years distant in the constellation Cepheus.  It combines emission, reflection, and dark nebulosity in one striking image.  I had tried several times before to capture this object, but it never seemed to work until this attempt in September of 2013 at Goldendale, Washington (RGB data) and Wa-chur-ed Observatory (H-alpha data).  It is quite dim and requires quite long exposures, even for the RGB portion.  H-alpha data was captured later and added to enhance details in the red.  There are some fascinating small details in the image that are not easily seen in this small version.  I particularly like the blue dust around the star on the right.

Scope: AT111EDT at f/5.6
Mount: AP Mach1
Camera: QSI 583wsg
Exposure: 14 x 240s Luminance, 10 x 480s RGB, 7 x 1800s H-alpha (8.4 hr total)


About Greg Marshall

I am a retired electronics engineer and after a few months of enjoying my leisure I began to miss doing product development. My astronomy hobby always needed new solutions to unique problems, so I decided that whenever I came up with a good solution I would try to make it available to others.

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