IC 2087 is a reflection nebula located in the constellation Taurus, approximately 430–450 light-years from Earth. It is embedded within the massive dark Taurus Molecular Cloud, which is a large stellar nursery.
The nebula is often described as resembling a small, yellowish “flame.” It stands out against the dark dust of the surrounding molecular cloud. Most reflection nebulae are blue. However, IC 2087 appears yellow or orange in some images. This is due to the “Taurus reddening law”.
I found the target difficult to image as there are limited stars visible due to the dark molecular cloud present. Guiding was difficult as their were few guide stars to lock on to. Several times my plate-solving failed during goto++ operations at the meridian flip due to the limited stars. Fortunately APT uses the background during auto focus as there weren’t many stars. Not a target for sleeping while imaging.
I managed to capture 198 300s subframes using APT, for a total of 16.5 hours of exposure. Processed manually in PixInsight to achieve a natural color image.
