Stunning Pacman Nebula with Minimal Integration Time

This is my narrowband image of the Pacman Nebula (NGC 281), captured from my backyard with a total integration time of just 2.5 hours.

Acquisition details:

• Telescope: Explore Scientific ED80CF

• Camera: ZWO ASI533MC Pro (cooled to –10 °C)

• Filter: Optolong L-eXtreme

• Mount: Juwei17

• Guiding: PHD2

• Control: NINA running on a Mele fanless mini PC

• Frames: 30 × 300 s light frames + calibration frames (total ~2.5 h)

• Processing: PixInsight & GIMP

Despite the relatively short total exposure time, I’m really happy with how this image turned out. The Hα emission regions and dark dust lanes of the nebula stand out beautifully, revealing much of the structure of the Pacman Nebula.