NGC 281 is a H II region in the constellation of Cassiopeia and part of the Perseus Spiral Arm. It includes the open cluster IC 1590, the multiple star HD 5005, and several Bok globules - clouds of dense cosmic dust and gas in which star formation sometimes takes place. Bok globules typically have a mass of about 2 to 50 solar masses contained within a region of about a light year (Source Wikipedia). Colloquially, NGC 281 is also known as the Pacman Nebula for its apparent resemblance to the video game character....

Exposure Details

Optics: William Optics flt110 at F5.2
Camera: Starlightxpress SXVFH16
Guiding: Lodestar and off axis guider
Mount: AP900gto3
Filters: Badeer Ha, OIII and SII narrowband filters
Acquisition: CCDautopilot v5, The Sky 6 and Maxim DL5
Processing: Aligned and stacked in Maxim DL5, post processing in PixInsight and Photoshop CS3.

Sub exposures
16 x 30 min Ha
8 x 30 min OIII binned 2x2
8 x 30 min SII binned 2x2
18 dark frames and 11 flat frames per channel