WITCH HEAD NEBULA

This is my first attempt at the Witch Head Nebula, I hope you can see the profile image of the Witch in this close-up shot.

The Witch Head Nebula was always just out of reach for me. From my old home under Bortle 8–9 light polluted city skies, I knew it was there, but totally invisible to my camera sensor. As a reflection nebula composed of interstellar dust, illuminated only by the intense light of Rigel, a blue giant star, no amount of optimism could overcome the city's skyglow. I was saving this target for when I would go out camping with the family in the winter. For a couple of years, that did not happen, though.

Moving to Texas and having dark skies now has changed that in a very personal way. Now under Bortle 4-5 skies, I'm able to capture its faint phantasmagorical form from my own backyard, the Witch Head slowly emerges, subtle. Capturing it feels like a technical achievement and a milestone for me. This image is not just about better skies; it’s about patience, never stopping to learn, so I could capture a piece of the universe that was always there, waiting.

I’m sharing 2 stretches of it from the same data, my fisrt one was really soft and I though I could push the data further to reveal more dust and I was right, ther was more data to be revealed by going a bit more aggressive in the stretch, First one was VeraLux Hyper Stretch and the second one I used Seti Astro Statistical Stretch 3.x

8h 08 min total integration time | 97x300s
Sharpstar 61 EDPH II + 0.8 reducer 274mm @f4.5
ASI183MC PRO dedicated astrocamera
AM5 Mount
SVBONY UV/IR cut filter
SVBONY 30mm f4 Guide Scope
ASI120MM mini guide camera with red filter
ASIAir mini
Bortle 4-5

Software: DeepSkyStacker > Siril > Veralux Alchemy > Starnet > VeraLux HMS > Graxpert > Cosmic Clarity > Photoshop > Topaz Denoiser