A Halloween Treat: I Captured the Ghost of Cassiopeia

For this year’s spooky season, I set up my gear and let it run through the night to capture a faint nebula haunted by the glow of a nearby bright star: the Ghost of Cassiopeia (IC 63).

I gathered about 4 hours of exposure under city skies (a real challenge for such a faint target). In post-processing, I focused on revealing as much of the nebula as possible without blowing out brilliant Gamma Cassiopeiae. The result is a ghostly apparition that I’m truly happy with!

Acquisition Details:

• Scope: Explore Scientific ED80CF

• Camera: ZWO ASI533MC Pro (–10 °C)

• Filter: Optolong L-eXtreme

• Mount: Juwei17

• Guiding: PHD2

• Control: NINA on Mele Fanless MiniPC

• Data: ~4 hours (46 × 300s lights + calibration)

• Processing: PixInsight & GIMP