The constellation Cygnus, also named as "The Northern Cross", contains a lot of nebulas which are great imaging targets. One of this, IC1318, near the star Sadr (gamma Cygni), is a wonderful mix of emission nebulas, dark nebulas and Bok globules which can be shown greatly with the help of an Ha filter. The increased contrast improve the visibility of all the details, and give to the image a 3D aspect. The image above shows the brighter part of IC1318, which in reality has an extension of 3°, and can be imaged in its totality only making mosaics of different images .

Camera : Starlight Xpress SXV-H9 with Astronomik 13nm Ha filter


Telescope : Takahashi FS-102 at F/6 with focal reducer on a GM2000-FS2


Guiding : ST4 on a Vixen 80/910mm.


Exposure : 6x600sec. unbinned


Processing : MaxIm (align, combine, stretching) - Photoshop (final enhancing)


Location : Piano di Nivolet (Val d'Aosta) - 2600mt. height


Date : July 30, 2003

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