Date: 10/21/2011
Target: NGC1499 - California Nebula
Telescope: Vixen ED80Sf
Camera: Canon 40D (modified)
Filter: IDAS LPS
Exposures: 49x300s (4h) @ ISO1600
Framing: North is Up, 98% crop,
Center (RA, Dec): (60.068, 36.263)
Radius: 1.243 deg
Location: Mocksville, NC
Seeing: 3/5
Transparency: 4/5
Ambient Temp: 40F
Start Time: 10:15PM
End Time: 3:30AM
Captured with Nebulosity, stacked using DeepSkyStacker, processed in Photoshop.

Anacortes Picture of the Day, October 28, 2011

From Wikipedia:

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 US 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 H-Beta filter (isolates the H-Beta 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.
The California Nebula was discovered by E. E. Barnard in 1884.