Celestial hemisphere:  Northern  ·  Constellation: Orion (Ori)  ·  Contains:  Monkey Head Nebula  ·  NGC 2174  ·  NGC 2175
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NGC2175 Monkey Head Nebula, niteman1946
NGC2175 Monkey Head Nebula
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NGC2175 Monkey Head Nebula

Getting plate-solving status, please wait...
NGC2175 Monkey Head Nebula, niteman1946
NGC2175 Monkey Head Nebula
Powered byPixInsight

NGC2175 Monkey Head Nebula

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Description

Open Cluster NGC 2175 is an open cluster in the Orion constellation, embedded in a diffusion nebula. It was discovered by Giovanni Batista Hodierna before 1654 and independently discovered by Karl Christian Bruhns in 1857. NGC 2175 is at a distance of about 6,350 light years away from Earth.
There is some equivocation in the use of the identifiers NGC 2174 and NGC 2175. These may apply to the entire nebula, to its brightest knot, or to the star cluster it includes. Burnham's Celestial Handbook lists the entire nebula as 2174/2175 and does not mention the star cluster. The NGC Project (working from the original descriptive notes) assigns NGC 2174 to the prominent knot at J2000 06h 09m 23.7s, +20° 39′ 34″ and NGC 2175 to the entire nebula, and by extension to the star cluster. Simbad uses NGC 2174 for the nebula and NGC 2175 for the star cluster.   [Source:  Wikipedia]

CAPTURE Information:  This is a Two-Panel Mosaic.
The image was captured with the iOptron CEM120 mount, the venerable Meade 12"LX200 SCT, and my QHYCCD QHY294m Pro mono CMOS camera at F7.16 (2182mm FL). 
Image subs were taken through Astronomik's narrowband filters of Ha (hydrogen), OIII (oxygen) and SII (sulfur).

IMAGE information -- 2023
The following is a breakdown of each panel (i.e. panel 1 and panel 2 respectively).
Ha :  40 and 40 subs (3.33 and 3.33hr) on Feb 22nd and Mar 4th.
OIII : 20 and 20 subs (1.67 and 1.67hr) on Feb 22nd and 27th, and Mar 3rd.
SII :   20 and 20 subs (1.67 and 1.67hr) on Mar 3rd.

All exposures were at 5 minutes (300s) each, 1600 gain, 56 offset, 1x1 bin and -10C.

Each two panels of Ha, OIII and SII were individually integrated.  All twenty each of the two panels for OIII and SII were then combined using PixInsights mosaic processes.  Only twenty of the two Ha panels were mosaically combined due to that’s all I had at the time. The three assembled panels were then combined as color, using PixiInsight’s “ChannelCombination”, and the Hubble palette of SHO. 
An additional 20 each of the two Ha panels was added to the existing 20 panel sets for its mosaic (making it a total of 40 subs each) and this Ha assembly was further processed as the LUM element.
The SHO (color) set was then combined with the Ha panel set using PixInsight’s “LRGBCombination”.

Processing was done in PixInsight following good practice and, for the most part, kayronjm's tutorial of Feb. 24th from several years back. 
Credit also goes to Rick Stevenson’s Color Mask Script and Christopher Gomez’s tutorial.

 COMMENTS: 
This is the 2nd time I’ve run at this target.  The first was in 2018 with my Meade 12”LX200 fork mount, my TMB80SS refractor and my Canon EOS450 (mod) color DSLR.  It wasn’t anything to write home about. 

This time we’re on the iOptron CEM120 using the QHY294 pro mono cmos camera.  And this is the only one done as a mosaic.

ONE LAST THING:
My previous posting was the M82 galaxy which is fairly close to the pole.  I noted at the time that the iOptron CEM120 RA drive behavior had improved, although not returned to its glory days.  The target this time (NGC2175) is much further south (more overhead when it passes).  The RA drive was more active here, although the final product somewhat belies that.

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NGC2175 Monkey Head Nebula, niteman1946