This patch of nebulosity lies in the constellation of Perseus at a distance of about 1.500 light years. It is about 100 light years across and was discovered back in 1885 by Edward Barnard.
This image was taken from the Gower peninsula in late August 2025 under very clear sky conditions with stars visible down to magnitude 6.5.
I was using an Atik 383L mono CCD camera, a 200mm lens, a Vixen DX mount and a set of Astronomik filters that was placed in front of the camera lens.
I captured two minute sub frames with matching dark frames and combined them with flat field frames to reduce the effect of noise and vignetting in the final image. The total exposure time was 2 hours and 14 minutes using a H Alpha filter, 1 hour using an S11 filter, 20 minutes using an O111 filter and 4 minutes using a blue filter.
Equipment used
Sky conditions looking south west
The California Nebula.
Hubble Palette
RGB
