The Fish Head Nebula is a diffuse nebula (IC 1795) which also includes an open star cluster (NGC 896). It's located in the constellation Cassiopeia and lies about 6,000 light-years from Earth. It's often included in images of IC 1805, the much larger Heart Nebula (shown to the right in this 2013 image with the Fish Head region highlighted).

I imaged the nebula at the Cosmic Campground near Alma, NM. It was the first time in a few years that I had been back to CCG. I had briefly visited the campground a month earlier on my way back from my 50th HS reunion. Several improvements had been made since my last visit. So I went back with my imaging equipment and found a nice, developed site near the 'astronomy ring' with a table and fire pit.

This was my first time using N.I.N.A. to control my mount and imaging equipment. Overall, it went pretty well. With auto-focusing being so easy, I re-focused often - usually every 2-5 subs. Plate solving made framing the image each night a breeze. And being able to easily and accurately align the mount made for really good tracking and star shapes.

Ha,O3,S2,L,R,G, and B data was collected over the course of three nights.

The field of view used to acquire the image is shown in the Imaging Details box and in the inset to the right. The image at topis reduced in size (to roughly 25% scale). Clicking the image above will open up a larger, version.

Imaging Details
Imaging Dates	October 10-12, 2023
Imaging Location	Cosmic Campground (+33.48°, -108.92°)
Constellation	Casseopeia
Imaging Telescope	Stellarvue 115 fluorite triplet
Imaging Camera	Atik 460EX
Imaging Filter(s)	L, R, Ha, G, B, O3, S2
Exposures	L - 120 sec; R,G,B - 180 sec, Narrow Band - 300 sec
Guiding	50mm f/4 guide scope, 2x Barlow, Lodestar X2, PhD Guiding
Image Processing	Sub alignment and initial stretches were performed using Nebulosity; Photoshop CS5 was used to process the stacked subs. Topaz DeNoise AI was used to reduce noise and sharpen the image.