Image obtained 03-10/11-2016 through RVO's Megrez 80mm refractor with Orion field-flattener lens, using a Baader-modified Canon XSi DSLR and BackyardEOS image-acquisition software – 17 carefully selected and stacked 300-second luminance frames combined with multiple dark, flat and bias calibration frames shot at ISO 1600 and totaling more than 200 minutes (~85 minutes effective luminance) were used to create this image; optics driven by the Losmandy G-11 mount equipped with Ovision's precision RA worm gear, guided with a ZWO ASI 120MM Monochrome CCD camera using Maxim DL Pro and post-processed with DeepSkyStacker, Photoshop CS3 and NeatImage noise reduction s/w.

[Photographer's personal note -- Unfortunately this image suffers from a lack of contrast, mostly due to a visible sky fog photographic gradient, a phenomenon generally associated with the subject/object being low in the sky. Also, it's not full-frame shot, as a type of thermal noise was prevalent on the left side of the imaging Canon camera's screen and definitely needed to be cropped out -- this excessive electronic noise can and will be corrected in future photographs. Further, I'll rephotograph this particular object and star field earlier in the year next time around -- the background should be darker and possess far less sky fog gradient.]

[copyright Rabbit Valley Observatory/Willis Greiner, 2016 -- all rights reserved]