Wizard Nebula – Progress from 2021 to 2023

We have had a record of cloudy weather here in Sweden recently with basically zero sun hours in the last month or so resulting in not so much astro photography. I did however get a chance to use my home observatory before that, gathering over 16 hours of data on SH2-142 or the Wizard Nebula. I wanted to share that image with you as well as show you the progress I have made from 2021 to 2023 in astro photography.

The Wizard nebula is the surrounding emission nebulosity of the open star cluster NGC 7380 in the northern circumpolar constellation of Cepheus, discovered by Caroline Herschel in 1787. It is extremely difficult to observe visually, usually requiring very dark skies and an O-III filter. It is located at approximately 8 500 light years from the Sun, in the Perseus Arm of the Milky Way and it spans about 20 light years.