“The moon’s an arrant thief, and her pale fire she snatches from the sun.”
Timon of Athens
Act IV, scene ii
If Shakespeare had known about narrowband filters, equatorial mounts, and CMOS camera sensors, he might have written these lines about AE Aurigae, the variable runaway star that is presently passing through and illuminating an interstellar cloud of gas and dust and giving rise to what is known as the Flaming Star nebula.
This framing evokes for me the feeling of falling into this cauldron and whirlpool of ionized gas. 17 nights were necessary to capture these 37 hours of data, as this was captured late in the season and IC 405 wasn’t above my local horizon for more than two hours during the night toward the end.
Processed in the Hubble palette in PixInsight. Data was acquired from my backyard in Santa Monica, CA using the following gear:
Camera: ZWO ASI6200MM-pro
Scope: William Optics Fluorostar 132mm Refractor
Mount: Astro-Physics Mach2GTO
Filters: Chroma 3nm Ha/SII/OIII 50mm
Guide Camera: ZWO ASI174MM-mini
Accessories: ZWO OAG-L, Pegasus Powerbox Advance
Additional detail is available at the image link referenced above.
Respectfully submitted,
Aaron Wilhelm