IC 59 and IC 63 (Ghosts of Cassiopeia) in Ha and rendered in B&W

I thought this image of IC 63 (right) and IC 59 (left), the Ghosts of Cassiopeia, captured in Ha and rendered in black and white was, well, ‘haunting’!   (My tribute to Ansel Adams, maybe.)  I have about 6 hours of color data from this that is yet to be processed, but I thought this was very appropriate in the spirit of Halloween so I wanted to share it. 

The “Ghosts” are emission (IC 63 mainly) and reflection nebulae in Cas, about 600 light-years from Earth.  The bright star that IC 63 is pointing toward is gamma-Cas (Navi), a spectroscopic binary star, which illuminates the gas and dust clouds to give the ghostly appearance.   

Not sure how the color image will come out, but I’ll post it if I ever get around to processing it and if it is as haunting as this image!

Capture Date for Ha Image: 7/31

Average Moon Illumination 0% (since the moon set before imaging started)

Askar 107PHQ (fL = 749mm)
ASI2600MM Pro (Monochrome camera)
Antlia Ha 2” mounted 3nm Narrowband Pro Imaging Filter
ZWO AM5 mount with guiding via SV106 and ASI178MM

Narrowband Ha; 300 sec x 25 = 2:05

All light frames calibrated with dark, flat, and bias frames
Pre- and post-processed in PixInsight
Additional post-processing in Photoshop for exposure adjustments and generation of reduced size jpeg