Molecular Clouds in Cepheus: MBM 163, 164 & 165 and LBN 569.

Rarely imaged Molecular Clouds in Cepheus: MBM 163, 164 & 165 and LBN 569. MBM is an abbreviation for Magnani, Blitz and Mundy who identified/catalogued 57 molecular clouds at high galactic altitudes in 1985.

https://www.mauricetoet.nl/DeepSky/i-5Z9v6J4/A

Imaged with a Nikon D810a and Takahashi Epsilon-180ED on A-P Mach1 GTO3. Total integration time of 26.5 hours using 5 min. subs @ ISO 400 (318 light frames). Dither-guided with a Lacerta MGEN standalone autoguider (Vixen 70S guidescope). Captured during 6 nights (August 6, 8, 10, 11, 13 and 17) in Izon-la-Bruisse, Drôme, France.

At the beginning of each session, 30 flat frames were captured. Offset correction with a master bias frame of 200 bias frames. I didn't use dark frames.

Processing with APP. Settings other than default:

- noise weighted integration;

- MBB enabled: 5%;

- LNC enabled: 1st degree, 1 iteration.

DDP stretch: 20% BG - 3 sigma - 2.5% base.

Light pollution removal / fixing gradients: marking background areas with several dozen squares.

Post-processing in Adobe Photoshop CC: increasing colour vibrance/saturation (in RGB mode and on a and b channels in Lab colour mode), tightening star edges, enhancing nebulas/midtones (curves with layer mask to protect the stars), very slight noise reduction in the background (using noise reduction in  Camera RAW).

Full field of view in colour:

Contrast enhanced monochrome version (with less stars):

Annotated version:

I 'discovered' this area by browsing / exploring the Aladin Sky Atlas. Last February I tried out a part of this area using the digitized POSS-II data (red and blue plates). Now I can show my result and that of the 48-inch f/2.5 Oschin Schmidt Telescope side-by-side.