IC2118 is one of the dimmer objects I imaged while we were enjoying the dark skies in Dell City, Texas.  

This image used only 1.9 hours of data.  I’ve started having trouble with my tracking mount glitching, so I had to toss a bunch of data.  I’ve been researching how to fix that.

IC2118, also called the Witch Head Nebula, is a reflection nebula – an interstellar cloud of dust that is lit up by a nearby star, in this case Rigel (which is not in this image).  It’s located in the Milky Way, approximately 900 light years away, and it’s approximately 50 light years long, giving it an apparent size of 1 degree by 3 degrees (not all in this image).  

The ”witch” is facing towards the upper right corner, with her nose around the vertical center of the image.  

One thing that surprised me was that I can see multiple galaxies in her hair – NGC1752, PGC16607, and PGC16669.  NGC1752 is a spiral galaxy about 143.5 Mega light years away.  PGC16607 is a galaxy about 179 Mega light years away.  PGC16669 is a galaxy about 500 Mega light years away.  I find the idea of being able to image galaxies so far away … awe-inspiring.

I find the idea of a crone with galaxies in her hair … poetic and inspirational.  And I think she should have a companion: the man with a galaxy under his hat.  Deserving of a story!

Camera geek info:

• Canon EOS 60D in manual mode, 2 minute exposure, ISO 1600
• Intervalometer
• Williams Optics Zenith Star 73 III APO telescope
• Williams Optics Flat 73A
• iOptron CEM40
• Dell City, Texas Bortle 2-3 dark skies

Frames:

• October 12, 2023 
  • Run 1
    • 57 2 minute lights 
    • 30 0.01 second flats
    • 30 0.01 second flat darks
  • 35 2 minute darks

Processing geek info:

• PixInsight
• BlurXterminator
• NoiseXterminator
• StarXTerminator
• Generalized Hyperbolic Stretch