“Witch Head” nebula from Grandpré

Again with the 300mm Nikkor ED AF objective as previously used on M45. This tele-objective was trusted on me by Gust Vandermolen, photographer from Tienen;

The Witch Head is notoriously ‘not easy’, given the low surface brightness, the large area it strethces over, and the closeness of the very bright Rigel.

This picture was composed out of 100 lights of 120s ech, or 3hr and 20m in total. The mount was the old HEQ5, guiding with the old MGEN 2.

Astropixelprocessor and Photoshop. Don’t zoom in too much, as the star geometry is not exactly pristine. I focussed on the nebula while processing.