The California Nebula: "A raspberry sorbet in the sky"
The California Nebula (NGC 1499) is an emission nebula located in the constellation Perseus. It is so named because it appears to resemble the outline of the U.S. State of California on long exposure photographs. It is almost 2.5° long on the sky and, because of its very low surface brightness, it is extremely difficult to observe visually. It can be observed with a Hβ filter (isolates the Hβ line at 486 nm) in a rich-field telescope under dark skies. It lies at a distance of about 1,000 light years from Earth. Its fluorescence is due to excitation of the Hβ line in the nebula by the nearby prodigiously energetic O7 star, xi Persei. (Source: Wikipedia)
 
Credit: Paul C. Swift
Paul's website: moonrocksastro.com/index.php/astro-blog/
Image Capture Location: Home observatory, Valencia, Spain
Release Date: April 27, 2016
Technical details:
Ha was added to the Red channel then combined to produce an RGB image. Then Ha + OIII was used a luminance layer and OIII colour blue was layered though a masking process in Ps to create separation.
 
Imaging telescopes or lenses: Vixen VSD
Imaging cameras: Starlight Express SXVR-H18
Mounts: MX
Guiding telescopes or lenses: Vixen VSD
Guiding cameras: sx loadstar
Software: PixInsight 1.8, Sequence Generator Pro, Photoshop CS5, PHD, Main Sequence Software
Filters: Baader H-alpha 3.5 Nm, Baader O III 8.5nm
Accessories: Starlight Xpress USB filter wheel
Frames:
Baader Ha 3.5nm: 10x1800"
Baader O III 8.5nm: 20x1800"
Integration: 15 hours
Plus RGBL 400x 10 in each

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