Michael A. Stecker
mastecker@gmail.com

Ghost Nebula in Cepheus (cropped & enhanced with most stars removed)
shot with 10-inch Newtonian telescope
The Ghost Nebula (aka:Sh 2-136, VdB 141) is a reflection nebula located 1,470 light-years from Earth in the constellation Cepheus near the Iris Nebula (NGC 7023). While it resembles a ghost to many, to me it appears like an attacking bird with talons directed to an unusual prey to the left. There are several stars embedded, whose reflected light make the nebula appear a yellow-brown color. This cropped image is a joint project of James Foster and Michael Stecker using a Sky-Watcher 250P 10-inch f/4 Newtonian telescope and color camera. The exposure was for
about 13 hours and was processed in Pixinsight and Adobe Photoshop.
file: GhostNebula803minEXP10inNewtAsi6200mcPI_BlurExtStarShrinkNoStars2deNOISE2-asm.jpg
click here for full resolution image

Photographic Data
Date:
September 13-17, 2026

telescope:
Sky-Watcher Quattro 250P
(10-inch f/4 Newtonian telescope with coma corrector)
FL= 1,000 mm
cropped photo
 

mount:
ZWO AM7 harmonic mount

guiding:
Off-axis, ZWO ASI174MM guide camera

imaging camera:
ZWO ASI6200MC-Pro (full frame one-shot color astro-camera)
cropped image

exposure:
803 minutes  or 13.3 hours

processing:
Pixinsight, ML-Astro BlurXterminator, StarEliminator & DeNoise plugins for Pixinsight,
StarShrink plugin for Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Photoshop Elements 2021

photographic site:
Pinon Pines Estates (Frazier Park California)




"The Bird" -- image above cropped
file: GhostNebula803minNoStars2deNOISE2-crbx3.jpg
click here for full resolution image
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