Never change a Winning Team – NGC 7023
Equipment
- Nikon D5300 (unmodified)
- Tamron 70-300mm F/4-5.6
- Sky Watcher Star Adventurer Pro
A new location this time! Much easier to access, but I have the feeling the light pollution is a bit worse here.
I thought it couldn’t get harder than finding M81 and M82, but it’s possible. Today’s target is NGC 7023 (Iris Nebula), a bright reflection nebula in the constellation Cepheus. It doesn’t glow by itself but shines because it reflects the light of a nearby young star, making it look like a glowing flower—hence the name “Iris.” It’s about 1,300 light-years away from Earth.
To focus, I just took any bright object from the sky. But while focusing, suddenly two or three other small objects appeared next to the “star.” That’s when I realized I had randomly chosen Jupiter to focus on! Another unforgettable feeling! The largest and fastest-spinning planet in our solar system helped me tonight! Even though I could only see 3 of its 95 moons, I was very happy!
After my failed attempt to capture the Flaming Star Nebula last time (and missing it in the frame), I tried plate solving for the first time this session. Super easy!
I had everything perfectly framed. But there was a feeling—I was afraid I wasn’t perfectly focused. So I contemplated for about 10 minutes. I know, precious capturing time lost. But I would’ve been so sad to find out later that I was out of focus. So I touched the focus wheel. And you guessed it—for another 90 minutes, I couldn’t get a better focus than before. All that time I could’ve taken exposures of the Iris Nebula.
But I still got about three hours of good exposure!
An all-nighter—got home around 8 a.m., but it was totally worth it!
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)!
