The reflection nebula, NGC 7129, is located in the constellation Cepheus and is about 3,300 light years (ly) away. The young, open star cluster at the center contains more than 130 stars and is believed to be less than 1 million years old.
The name, Cosmic Rosebud, comes from the fact the exciting stars have blown a bubble that resembles a rosebud in the molecular cloud that surrounded them. Some of the reddish color comes from the dust grains glowing on the surface of the bubble.
There is quite a bit of nebulosity surrounding the NGC 7129, but I was unable to bring it out anymore without introducing significant noise since I had limited time on the target and had to throw away an additional 3.5 hours of data due to the target not being sharply focused. (The cost of doing business sometimes with longer focal length, f/10 beasties.)
All in all, I think it’s a very pretty target!
Capture Dates: 5/31 and 6/3/2024
Equipment
Celestron EdgeHD 800 (fL 2032mm; f/10) with Celestron OAG and ASI174mm mini guide camera
ASIAir Plus, ASI2600MC, ZWO AM5 mount, ZWO 2” 5-position filter wheel
Filter: Antlia 5nm Triband Ultra RGB filter 2": 112×120″ (3:44 Total Integration)
Processed with PixInsight as an HOO image; Adobe Photoshop used to crop and general the JPEG.
Greg, I really like this object and your processing of it. It looks very natural with smooth even textures and nice and not overly done coloring. Very nice result.
Terri
