IC 4601 is a reflection nebula located in the constellation Scorpius. It's roughly 420 light years distant from Earth. It's often included as part of the much larger blue horsehead nebula, IC 4592 (inset). The region has a blue-ish cast because particles of fine dust in the area preferentially reflect the blue light of a few nearby stars.

Data for this image was acquired between May 5 and May 9 at Rusty's RV Ranch located in the 'boot heel' region of New Mexico near the town of Rodeo. The nights of May 7th and 8th were especially good. I employed N.I.N.A. to remotely manage my gear and imaging sessions. Autofocusing was performed frequently - usually every 3 to 5 subs.

The target choice was kind of random. I was looking for something around 16 hrs right ascention to kill a couple of hours between imaging M101 and M16. IC 4601 was in a good place.

I collected LRHaGB data, but only used R, G and B subs for this image.

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 Telescope	Stellarvue 115 fluorite triplet
Imaging Camera	Atik 460EX
Imaging Filter(s)	L, R, Ha, G, B
Exposures	L - 120 sec; R,G,B - 180 sec, Ha - 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.