Van den Bergh 141: The Ghost Nebula

Van den Bergh 141 (VdB141, also designated as Sh2-136) The Ghost Nebula, is a reflection nebula located in the constellation Cepheus. 

I really like this region of Cepheus and the image I took of it in 2010 has been my desktop wallpaper all these years (This image is still on my website, you can have a look at it here).

So I decided to improve this image and I have added a lot more exposure: this 2024 image accumulates 25 hours of exposure, which doubles the exposure of the 2010 image. The image is an LRGB composition taken with my usual setup (TOA-150 and FSQ-106N with STL-11000M cameras) and has been fully processed with Pixinsight.

The first image on the right is the widefield version, covering about two degrees of sky (at 1.69 "/pixel resolution).

The second image is a 100% crop centred on VdB 141 (North is up on this image): Looking at this image, the name of the nebula is easily understood.

Comparing this image with the one obtained in 2010, a significant increase in the detail shown in the nebula can be seen.

Click on the images for a full resolution version, or go to the Gallery section for complete exposure details.

Image processing: Pixinsight.

Observatory automation and remote operation with Talon6.