LBN 438

While casting about for a deep-space object to image on a summer night, I opened CCDNavigator, which showed me LBN 438 near the top of its list of large targets.

LBN 438 is a dusty nebula in the constellation Lacerta. Although it is listed in Lynds "Bright" Nebula catalog, it is very faint. I acquired six hours of exposure on the first night, then went back for six more the following night. The sky was very clear and steady both nights, which helped a great deal.


Exposure  • 12.8 hours (77 X 10 minutes) @ -15°C
 • Dusk flats
 • Camera position angle: 90°
Processing  • With PixInsight:
   ☞ Calibrate, star-align, integrate subframes
   ☞ TGV Denoise
   ☞ Histogram transformation
   ☞ Curves
 • Final tweaking and sizing in Photoshop CS6
Date and Location  • August 31 and September 1, 2022
 • Louisa County, Virginia, USA
Equipment
 • TMB-130SS APO refractor @ f/7 on an A-P 1200 mount
 • ZWO ASI-1600MC Pro color camera
 • Guided with a ZWO ASI-120M camera on a 60mm f/5 scope
 • Imaging and autoguiding with MaxIm DL 6.20
 • Automated image acquisition with ACP Observatory Control


Updated May 23, 2023