Date Posted: 6/6/2024
Date Taken: 11/18/2014, 11/20/2014
Scope: Planewave CDK 12.5 f/8, 2541mm
Camera: SBIG STL-11000 with Astrodon Tru-Balance E-Series Gen2 filters
Temp: -15C
Mount: Losmandy Titan
Guiding: SSAG, Celestron 80mm guide scope, 600mm.
Exposure: LRGB 180:95:95:95 (L) (N)x5m, binned 1x1. RGB each (N)x5m, binned 2x2

Calibrated and Stacked with CCDStack2; RGB combine and DDP with MaximDL. Processed with CS4.

IC 417, known as the Spider Nebula, is an emission nebula with an embedded star cluster. It is located about 10,000 light years away in the constellation Auriga, almost exactly in the opposite direction as the galactic center from earth. The cluster is relatively young, with an estimated age of 3 million years. IC 417 is also cataloged as Sh2-234. The bright star to the lower left of the nebula is Phi Aurigae; it is unrelated to the nebula, and is much closer at an approximate distance of 450 light years.

This is a re-process of an image originally shot in 2014. I was a bit overly aggressive in shrinking the stars; many fainter stars virtually disappeared, and the cluster, comprised of hot young blue stars, was greatly diminished.