Friday, Jan 10, 2025

The area around the open star clusters NGC 654, NGC 659, NGC 663, and IC 166 in the constellation Cassiopeia is a beautiful target in the night sky, also featuring a few impressive dark nebulae such as LDN 1337. Those who look closely can spot the small reflection nebula VdB 6 in the lower part of the image, just above the dark nebula. This region is typically captured in pure RGB. However, I noticed faint H-Alpha clouds in some photos, which led me to decide to add 2.5 hours of H-Alpha data to the nearly 8.5 hours of RGB. During processing, I was able to combine the sparkling star clusters, mysterious dark nebulae, dust, reflection nebulae, and H-Alpha into a final image that reveals this area in a different light.