by Craig and Tammy Temple
NGC 281 is an open cluster with nebulosity in the constellation Cassiopeia. The emission nebula has a resemblance to the video game character "Pacman", hence it's name. This is an extremely faint object, even though it has an apparent magnitude of 7.00. It's brighness is spread-out over an area that is almost 35 arcminutes. The Pacman Nebula is about 10,000 light-years away.
Telescope: 10” Orion Newtonian at f/4.7
Accessories: Baader MPCC
Mount: Orion Atlas EQ-G controlled by EQMOD
Guiding: Orion StarShoot AutoGuider on William Optics ZS66
Camera: Self-modified Canon Digital Rebel XT
Filters: Astronomik CLS-CCD EOS Clip
Exposure: 76 x 180sec @ ISO 800 (3hr. 48min.)
Acquisition: ImagesPlus 3.75 Camera Control
Processing: ImagesPlus 3.75 – Calibrated, registered, Sigma-clipped averaged, DDP
Post-processing: Adobe Photoshop CS4; Gradient XTerminator; Noise Ninja, Noel Carboni's Tools
Date(s): September 9 & 27, 2009
Temperature(s): 74ºF & 70ºF