Object Description: Located about 4000 light years away, this cluster of stars, associated with a bright ionized hydrogen cloud with reflection nebulae, is popularly known as the Cocoon Nebula. It lies at the end of a long streamer of dark nebula cataloged as Barnard 168. The image is oriented North up.

Telescope: Takahashi FSQ106N
Camera: Canon 40D self-modified w/ Baader UV/IR cut filter
Mount: ParamountME unguided
Filters: none

Date Taken: 28SEP2008
Location: Lot4, Arcturus Way, Sacramento Mountains Astronomy Park, Weed, NM
Sky Conditions: transparency 3/5, seeing averaged 2.13 arcseconds for the night.
Image Acquisition: 40x300s, iso800 using ImagesPlus 3.5

Image Processing: ImagesPlus 3.80 used for data reduction, grading, alignment, SigMed combine, initial DDP, color balance. PSCS4 used for levels, curves, and color enhancement. GradX for gradient compensation and background equalization.