Sh2-112 First light color image with the ZWO ASI 6200 CMOS camera
Published 20 Aug 2020

Stacks Image 4832

Broadband image with Ha and OIII mixed in. The above image is cropped and rotated.
Larger size jpg images available here: Un-cropped full resolution 50%resolution

Stacks Image 5604

The image above is a narrow band Sulfur II, Hydrogen Alpha, and Oxygen III (SHO) image above combining images through 5nm SII, Ha and OIII filters. The SHO image combines 540min through each filter (27X1200sec) for a total of 27hrs. Clicking on the image above will show a full resolution image.

About this object

This is my first light color image using my new ZWO ASI6200 full frame CMOS camera. The Object is Sharpless 2-112 (Sh2-112) in the constellation Cygnus. The image was taken using my Stellarvue SVX152T 6" refractor at f8 or 1209mm focal length, through LRGB, Ha and OIII filters and is comprised of a total exposure time of 30.8hrs. It was taken over 15 nights in August 2020. The narrow band data was taken over several nights around the full moon in early August. The image above is a cropped version of a much larger field of view. I'm extremely impressed with this camera. Its significantly more sensitive than either the QSI 683/583 or STL11K cameras that I've used. The sensor is extremely clean and very linear. In order to manage the large file sizes, I shot this image using 2x2 binning. The raw data totaled 7GB. Using 1x1 binning would have been close to 28GB. The sensor is a bit oversampled at 1200mm focal length, f8 using 1x1 binning so 2x2 seemed perfect. Resolution is 1.28 arcsec/pixel. The image was processed using PixInsight. There were so many stars in this area of the Cygnus Milky Way that I used Adam Blocks star de-emphasis technique to control some of the 27,000 stars in the image. Please be sure to see the full resolution un-cropped image using the link above. If your interested in a comparison between the 35mm format STL-11K and ASI6200 see here: camera comparison
Image Details

  • Optics : Stellarvue SVX 152 refractor @f8 1200mm FL
  • Mount: Paramount MYT
  • Camera: ZWO ASI6200
  • Filters: Chroma 50mm LRGBOIIISII, Astrodon 50mm Ha
  • Exposure (min): LRGBHaOIII 235:175:170:190:540:540 30.8hrs, 2x2 binning
  • Exposure (min): SHO image SIIHaOIII 540:540:540
  • Camera/Mount Control: The Sky X, Voyager
  • Guiding: StarlightXpress Lodestar X2
  • Processing: PixInsight 1.8,
  • Location: Stark Bayou Observatory, Ocean Springs, MS
  • Sky: Typical SQM 19.6-20.1, Bortle 5, Suburban
  • Date: 1-18 Aug 2020
Stacks Image 5599
Stacks Image 74
Stacks Image 75
Stacks Image 5333