Imaging this object is a challenge with most CCD cameras, because the stars are so bright compared to the surrounding nebula. In my first two attempts, shown below, I used an ST10 XME camera, and then spent hours post-proccessing the images in Photoshop to get rid of the "bloom" around the brighter stars. More recently, I have acquired a more modest ST2000XM camera, which has "antiblooming" protection, that suppresses excess light from bright stars from spilling into adjacent pixels in the camera. I have also used a shorter focal length telescope, the Takahashi Sky90, with a reducer to yield a focal length of about 405 mm, which yields a wider field-of-view. The result, combining 50 minutes of red and green exposures with 90 minutes of blue exposures (all unbinned), is displayed above. Processing was much easier without the blooms. The halos around the brighter stars are caused by internal reflections between the camera and the overlying filters.
The image above was taken with an ST10XME camera and AP nosepiece reducer, to yield a focal length of about 700mm through a TEC140mm refractor, at the Hidden Lake Observatory. The image combined 36 minutes red, 29 minutes green, and 31 minutes blue exposures, all obtained unbinned.
The image below, taken over three years earlier from my suburban backyard, represents a combination of 30 minutes luminance, 10 minutes each red and green, and 15 minutes blue exposures. Images were taken through a 4" refractor, 0.75x reducer, and ST10XME camera.
