Sh2-119, the Clamshell Nebula — the North America Nebula’s overlooked next-door neighbor, sitting just east of it in Cygnus around the naked-eye star 68 Cygni. It rarely gets imaged on its own, which is a shame: in narrowband its interleaved shells and dark lanes have real depth. Five hours of narrowband with short RGB runs for natural star color, processed with a Foraxx palette.

All renders are in the gallery folder, and the image is on AstroBin.

Acquisition details

  • Total integration: 5h 10m — R/G/B 13m 20s each (40 × 20″), Hα 1h 20m (16 × 300″), SII 1h 20m (16 × 300″), OIII 1h 50m (22 × 300″)

Equipment

  • Telescope: Radian 61
  • Camera: ZWO ASI2600MM Pro
  • Mount: Sky-Watcher Wave 150i strain-wave mount
  • Filters: Optolong Hα 7nm / OIII 6.5nm / SII 6.5nm; Baader R/G/B (CMOS-optimized), 36 mm
  • Accessories: MeLE Quieter4 mini PC, Pegasus Astro FocusCube 3
  • Software: N.I.N.A., PHD2, Green Swamp Server, PixInsight