February 2026 – Page 6 – Semper Iuvenis Photography

WR 134 – Cygnus Star Field

WR 134 is a variable Wolf-Rayet star located about 6,000 light-years away in the constellation of Cygnus. This star is bright and massive. It has a radius that is five times greater than our own Sun’s radius. Its temperature is 63,000K, making it 400,000 times more luminous! It is surrounded by a faint bubble nebula formed by this star’s intense radiation and solar wind.

There is an excellent article in Wikipedia covering WR 134 in depth. I urge you to have a read – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WR_134

I imaged his target in mid-Oct 2025. 170 5 minute subs or approx. 14 hrs. Cloudy nights prevented an earlier start on this target. These few nights I was imaging post-meridian flip. I was impressed by the intensity and density of the starfield. Limited time per session. Target acquisition control using APT. Imaged with an Esprit 120ED and ASI2600MC atop an Eq6r Pro mount. Processed manually in PixInsight using a natural color palette.

Astrobin link for this image – acquisition details.

Sh2-154 a Molecular Hydrogen Cloud in Cepheus

Sh2-154 is a large emission nebula in the constellation Cepheus, located approximately 3,260 light-years away, within a star-forming region. It is cataloged in the Sharpless catalog. This nebula is noted for being a faint, but sizable, region of double-ionized hydrogen. It is surrounded by dust. The giant B-type star (LS III +60 28) is responsible for ionizing the nebula.

Sh2-154 is situated in the same larger star-forming complex as the more famous Cave Nebula, also known as Sh2-155. It is often pictured alongside Sh2-155 in wide-field astrophotography. The ionizing radiation from (LS III +60 28) may be compressing nearby molecular clouds. This action could potentially trigger the birth of new stars. The open cluster NGC 7419 is located close to Sh2-154. Because Sh2-154 is an emission nebula, it appears mostly red in images and is effectively captured using a hydrogen-alpha filter.

I use APT for image acquisition control and automation. The Skywatcher Esprit 120ED f7 840mm fl telescope was paired with the ZWO ASI2600MC camera. It was atop an Eq6r Pro mount. Together, they collected the 151 5 minute light frames over three nights in Sept 2025. I used PixInsight to create and process the image. Astrobin link for acquisition details.

Sh2-158 Northern Lagoon Nebula

SH2-158 is also known as the Northern Lagoon Nebula or NGC 7538. It is an active star-forming H II region in the constellation Cepheus. This nebula is located about 9,100 light-years away. It is home to massive young stars and protostars. It includes one exceptionally large O-type protostar. It is part of the Cassiopeia OB2 complex in the Perseus Arm of the Milky Way.

Sh2-158 is often overlooked by amateur astrophotographers due to its proximity to the larger and more famous Bubble Nebula. However, it is a challenging and rewarding target. I was intrigued by the name alone. I have imaged the Lagoon Nebula and hadn’t heard of the Northern Lagoon Nebula. A quick search led to a few examples but not many, so I set my sights on the target.

Sh2-158 is an active star-forming region embedded within a large molecular cloud. As an emission nebula, Sh2-158 glows. However, its light is spread out over a large area. This distribution makes its surface brightness very low. Long total exposure times are needed. Often, multiple hours are required to gather enough light. These times help distinguish the nebula from the sky’s background noise. The surrounding dust clouds absorb and scatter light, further diminishing the nebula’s brightness and obscuring fine details within it. This makes revealing the nebula’s structure challenging and requires advanced processing techniques. The dust also causes reddening, altering the color balance of images and requiring careful calibration during post-processing.

Image acquisition details in astrobin image

I imaged it over the course of three nights in Sept 2025. I used a RC8 telescope at 1625 mm paired with an AI071MC camera atop an Eq6r Pro mount. I used a Radian Ultra Quadband filter.

Sh2-86 Cloud Sculpting Star Cluster

Sh2-86 is a faint emission nebula in the constellation Vulpecula, located approximately 6,000 light-years from Earth. It contains the young, hot open star cluster NGC 6823. This cluster illuminates the surrounding nebula. It gives the nebula its distinctive shape.

The nebula has “pillar-like” structures. These structures are similar to “elephant trunks.” It also has Bok globules. These globules are denser regions of gas shielded from the intense radiation of the young stars.

This image consists of 81 exposures. Each exposure was 5 minutes long. They were taken from my driveway with an Esprit 120ED telescope and ZWO ASI2600MC camera. Image acquisition using APT. Image processed manually in PixInsight. Acquisition details in this astrobin link.

Discovering the clouds of LBN 552 in Cepheus

LBN 552 is an object listed in the Lynds’ Catalogue of Bright Nebulae. This catalogue, compiled by Beverly T. Lynds, lists various bright nebulae observed throughout the night sky.

LBN 552 is an extensive molecular cloud complex. It is very faint and located in the constellation Cepheus, about 600 light-years from earth. It is known for being one of the dimmest objects in the Lynds Bright Nebula catalog. It is often imaged together with the dark nebula LDN 1228. The pair are sometimes informally called the “Fighting Dragons“. It’s essentially a cloud of dust reflecting the light of nearby stars.

LBN 552 is classified as a “bright” nebula in the Lynds catalog. However, in practice, it is very faint. It is challenging to observe or image due to its diffuse nature. It contains a mixture of diffuse dark and light nebulosity. Most images of this cloud complex I’ve seen were bought from a service. Others were imaged from a remote hosting site. Very few taken from a backyard with a personal telescope.

This image is a touch over 11 hrs of exposure acquired from my driveway using APT running on a NUC. Esprit 120ED telescope f/7 at 640mm paired with the ASI 2600MC camera atop a Skywatcher Eq6r Pro mount. Processed manually using PixInsight. All of the acquisition detail here in the astrobin version.