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One of the most spectacular combinations of Emission and Reflection nebulosities in the sky, the "Flaming Star" Nebula in Auriga is an astrophotographers challenge to show both red and blue parts with the proper contrasts and color separations. To complicate the issue, a brilliant 5.6 magnitude star, AE Auriga which is the illuminating source for the nebula, causes havoc with huge blooming spikes. IC405 is 85x60 arcminutes in size, and this image here shows the portion that contains the best blue nebulosity.

Processing: Calibration: darks, flats in Maxim DL, Deblooming: R. Wodaski's debloomer plug in, 3 iterations RL Deconvolution: AIP, RGB combine: Maxim, LRGB combine: Photoshop 7.

Instrument:  12.5" f/5 Home made Newtonian
Platform:  Astrophysics 1200 QMD
CCD Camera:  SBIG ST8i
Guider: SBIG  ST4
Exposure:  LRGB = 60:20:20:40 (RGB Binned 2x2)
RGB Combine Ratio:  1: .75: 1
Filters:  RGB Tricolor
Location:  Payson, Arizona
Elevation:  5150 ft.
Sky:  Seeing FWHM = 4.0 arcsec (Maxim DL - 10min subframe), Transparency 8/10
Outside Temperature:  5 C
CCD Temperature:  -20 C
Processing:  Maxim DL, Photoshop, AIP4WIN, PW Pro.

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