NGC 281 – Pacman Nebula

This is one of my favorite images. I took it with my NexStar which is not supposed to be used for astrophotography at the modest f/10, but here we are. It gave me a lot of motivation to keep on shooting despite the frustrations that come with astrophotography 🙂

Scope: Celestron NexStar 8SE (2032mm, f/10)

Mount: Juwei 17

Camera: ASI 2600MC Pro at -10°C

Filter: Optolong L-Ultimate 3nm

Guiding ASIAIR Plus in ASI 120MM

Integration: 168x300s (14h)

PixInsight steps: GraXPert, SPCC, BlurX, StarX, NoiseX, Hist stretch, Narrowband Normalization, Curves, MLT, Local Hist Eq, NoiseX, Add stars with PixelMath

Affinity Photo steps: Levels, HSL, Brightness/Contrast

Vrhnika (Bortle 4-5), 9. and 10. November 2025