First Big Disappointment – IC 405

Equipment

• Nikon D5300 (unmodified)
• Tamron 70-300mm F/4-5.6
• Sky Watcher Star Adventurer Pro

This was probably my most ambitious project yet. No astro-modified camera. No filters. But for the first time, I wanted to try capturing an emission nebula. The Flaming Star Nebula (IC 405) was the target. IC 405 is located in the constellation Auriga. It’s named for the brilliant, fiery-looking clouds of gas that seem to radiate from the bright star AE Aurigae, as so called “runaway star”—scientists believe it was ejected from the Orion Nebula millions of years ago and now lights up the gas in IC 405.

I knew this wouldn’t be easy. Without a modified sensor, the red glow of H-alpha is hard to catch. I’d need a lot of subs and even more exposure time to see anything at all. So I committed to shooting the entire night.

This time, everything started off perfectly. I nailed the focus right away (finally!). I used three guiding stars to find my target, double-checked the framing, and hit go. And it felt like everything just clicked. Exposure after exposure—this became the longest imaging session I’ve ever done. I got home around 8 a.m., completely exhausted, and passed out instantly.

The next day, I was hyped. Perfect focus. So many subs. So much exposure. This had to be it—my best image yet. But then… I saw nothing. Not even a hint of red. No flame. Just a dark, empty patch of space. Confused, I plate solved the image—and yeah. Turns out the three guiding stars I used looked almost exactly like another formation in the sky. I had been pointing at the wrong spot the entire night. A full night of imaging. In the freezing cold. No food (my bad), no chair (also my bad), just me standing next to the tripod for hours… for absolutely nothing.

Honestly? That was one of the most soul-crushing days I’ve had in this hobby.

Previous Processed Images

Over time, my processing skills have improved. That’s why I occasionally return to old projects and rework everything from scratch—just to see what kind of results I can get now. It’s always nice to see how far I’ve come. So, here are all the versions (even the really bad ones)!

Big thanks to my friends on reddit for editing some of these images!