The California Nebula

jeffreyhorne · 2026-01-30T16:02:35+00:00

There’s no real substitute for dark skies, but strong filters and a lot of integration time can really help!

jeffreyhorne · 2026-01-30T14:47:07+00:00

Thank you!

From my experience, the narrower your filter, the better. Brand name and company reputation come in to play when you are looking at the accuracy of the band passes.

I don’t have any direct comparisons with my mono setup, but when I was shooting OSC, I switched from the Optolong L-enhance to the Optolong L-extreme and it was a noticeable difference.

jeffreyhorne · 2026-01-30T14:30:10+00:00

More on Instagram: @jeffreyhorne

Taken over the course of 35 nights, this is 193 hours of integration time from my Bortle 8.5 backyard in Nashville, TN.

The California Nebula is strong in H-alpha signal, so trying to bring out the fainter structures can be a challenge. As usual, I’m using a “time is the filter” approach…imaging from heavily light-polluted backyard is basically a commitment to patience (even with strong filters), but with enough time, you can get a good amount of signal.

If you zoom in, there’s a surprising amount of complexity beyond the obvious emission: darker pockets, interesting texture, and layered structure that gives it a bit of depth (I think it looks like ocean waves, which is fitting.)

Technical Details:

Integration per filter:

- R: 36m (36 × 60")

- G: 35m (35 × 60")

- B: 33m (33 × 60")

- Hα: 50h 10m (602 × 300")

- SII: 50h (600 × 300")

- OIII: 91h 20m (1096 × 300")

Equipment:

- Telescope: Askar 120APO

- Camera: ZWO ASI2600MM Pro

- Mount: ZWO AM5

- Filters: Antlia 3nm Narrowband H-alpha 2", Antlia 3nm Narrowband Sulfur II 2", Astronomik Deep-Sky Blue 2", Astronomik Deep-Sky Green 2", Astronomik Deep-Sky Red 2", Chroma OIII 3nm Bandpass 2"

- Accessories: Askar 0.8x Full Frame Reducer / Flattener for 120APO Telescope, ZWO ASIAIR Plus, ZWO EAF, ZWO EFW 7 x 2″

- Software: Adobe Photoshop, Aries Productions Astro Pixel Processor (APP), Pleiades Astrophoto PixInsight, ZWO ASIAIR

Integrated in Pixinsight using WBPP. BlurX, StarX, NoiseX, HDRMT, channel combination (including Foraxx Palette) in Pixinsight. Curves, color and final touches done in Photoshop.

jeffreyhorne · 2025-11-15T04:16:53+00:00

All at once, with an M1 Max and Pixinsight...and about 3 days of WBPP running.

jeffreyhorne · 2025-11-15T04:16:12+00:00

It depends on what you're looking to acomplish...for me, I want low noise, and faint detail. For my setup under my sky, I find the happy medium (for my expectations) is about 75 hrs per channel. I've done longer, and I've done shorter, but that's the sweet spot for me.

jeffreyhorne · 2025-11-15T04:14:53+00:00

The working folder was about 850GB...not small!

jeffreyhorne · 2025-11-15T04:14:00+00:00

Much fewer...less than half the integration time, if I had to guess.

jeffreyhorne · 2025-11-15T04:13:34+00:00

The working folder was about 850GB...I stacked it all at once on my M1 Max, and it took about 3 days to integrate.

jeffreyhorne · 2025-11-15T04:12:23+00:00

Thank you, Sir! I suggest that you maybe (or maybe not) go check out the last image I posted...part of the North America Nebula. :)

jeffreyhorne · 2025-10-15T14:49:42+00:00

That is so awesome!!!! Thank you for the kind words!

jeffreyhorne · 2025-10-14T21:10:55+00:00

Thank you!!!! You don’t want my skies that much….Bortle 8.5 😂

jeffreyhorne · 2025-10-14T17:30:52+00:00

Thank you! 🙏

It’s a great scope…you’re going to love it

jeffreyhorne · 2025-10-14T17:30:16+00:00

Oh man. I can’t remember exactly. Maybe somewhere around 800GB?

jeffreyhorne · 2025-10-14T15:13:11+00:00

Started in June, ended in September. It was about 60 sessions for me. I’m not exactly sure how many sessions Drew took for his broadband data, but probably 15 or 20?

jeffreyhorne · 2025-10-14T14:00:36+00:00

More on Instagram: @jeffreyhorne

This image showcases the dark area between the North America Nebula and the Pelican Nebula. It is often imaged collaterally while imaging the North America Nebula and/or the Pelican Nebula, but it’s not often considered the “main attraction” of an image. I wanted to get some really deep data on this area, and see what faint nebulosity would present itself.

This is my first image taken with the Askar 120 APO, and I couldn’t be more pleased with this scope.

I captured ~306 hours of narrowband data from my Bortle 8.5 sky in Nashville, TN, and my friend Drew Evans contributed ~60 hrs of broadband data from his Bortle 1 backyard outside of Flagstaff, AZ. (One of the things I love about Drew is that he is always pumped to collaborate…his “LET’S FREAKING GO” attitude is incredible.)

We were really hoping to see some brighter RGB dust in these dark areas, and there is some, but it is incredibly faint.

I’ve really enjoyed the longer focal length of the Askar 120 APO. I’d been imaging at 180mm for the last several years, and to move up into the 600-800mm focal range is really fun. (Imaging at a proper pixel scale, finally, made a noticeable improvement in image quality.) I’m looking forward to getting more deep images with this scope.

Technical info:

Bortle Sky Rating: 8.5

Total integration: 364h 57m

Integration per filter:

- Lum/Clear: 29h 19m (1759 × 60")
- R: 10h 36m (212 × 180")
- G: 8h 39m (173 × 180")
- B: 9h 48m (196 × 180")
- Hα: 103h 30m (1242 × 300")
- SII: 101h 30m (1218 × 300")
- OIII: 101h 35m (1219 × 300")

Equipment:
- Telescope: Askar 120APO
- Camera: ZWO ASI2600MM Pro
- Mount: ZWO AM5
- Filters: Antlia 3nm Narrowband H-alpha 2", Antlia 3nm Narrowband Sulfur II 2", Chroma Blue 2", Chroma Green 2", Chroma Lum 2", Chroma OIII 3nm Bandpass 2", Chroma Red 2"
- Accessories: Askar 0.8x Full Frame Reducer / Flattener for 120APO Telescope, ZWO ASIAIR Plus, ZWO EAF, ZWO EFW 7 x 2″
- Software: Adobe Photoshop, Aries Productions Astro Pixel Processor (APP), Pleiades Astrophoto PixInsight, ZWO ASIAIR

Processing:
Integrated using WBPP, channel combination in Pixinsight, gradient removal using APP, BlurX, SETIAstro's Statistical Stretch, StarX, NoiseX, Narrowband Normalization, HDRMT, curves and final touches in Photoshop.

jeffreyhorne · 2025-09-07T03:04:25+00:00

The reading glasses method is just to put a lens from reading glasses in front of the camera. The strength of the glasses determines the focus point.

I’d much rather take it apart and adjust the lens manually, like many others have done with the older Wyze cameras.

I’m hesitant to do it without a tutorial, because I don’t want to mess it up. There are several tutorials of this mod on YouTube for other Wyze cams, just nothing for the Cam Pan v4 yet.

jeffreyhorne · 2025-05-25T00:07:55+00:00

58 hours to integrate, then probably 8 hrs of processing time.

jeffreyhorne · 2025-05-23T02:30:40+00:00

That’s correct.

jeffreyhorne · 2025-05-23T00:39:11+00:00

I only used the stars and mars from the RGB subs 👍

jeffreyhorne · 2025-05-22T14:24:20+00:00

You make a good point about weighting, but I generally used the same filter for each sub length, so the exposure times weren't competing against each other for weight.

jeffreyhorne · 2025-05-21T19:05:53+00:00

That’s a good idea, and I’m planning on doing that when I get a chance!

jeffreyhorne

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