NGC 1931 and IC 417  - Prime Focus Pictures
 Images Copyright © 2008, 2009, Dick Locke.  All Rights Reserved.  Contact and Image Use Information 

2009: Spider & Fly Nebula Mosaic

A blend of 17*5 minute QHY8 CCD Camera images, 40* 4 minute Canon EOS 20Da DSLR H-alpha images, and 30*4 minute Canon EOS 20Da DSLR images.  Takahashi TOA 130  Telescope (a 5" APO refractor telescope), AP 900GTO mount, QHY8 CCD Camera.  Other pictures from the camera are are here.  Images processed using my Astronomy Image Processing Workflow.  Other March 2009 Astronomy Images are here.   I used some advanced techniques & tools to reduce the star sizes above.

NGC 1931 (left) and IC 417 (right)

These objects are very dim which explains why they are not imaged as much as some of the other, brighter objects in Auriga.  These have been called "The Spider (IC 417) and The Fly (NGC 1931).  I think the spider part shows better on some of the deep H-alpha images.

IC 417 Close-up

This image is a crop and ~50% reduction of the image on top.  Note the two blobby blue reflection nebula to the right, which I can't immediately find names for.  They look a bit like IC 426 on my "Alnilam" area page.

NGC 1931 Close-up

NGC 1931 above is a crop of the full resolution final image.

NGC1931 and IC417 Image details. 30 * 4 = 120 minutes (2 hours) total exposures 1/31/2008 at the HAS site near Columbus.  Canon EOS 20Da (unmodified), Takahashi TOA 130 (a 5" APO refractor) with Tak flattener, and Astro-Physics AP 900GTO mount.    My current image processing workflow is here.