The Iris in the wee hours of the morning

April 12, 2026

I started capturing imaging data for the Iris around 2 in the morning, and ended up with 61 good subs around 4:45am. The Iris Nebula (LBN 487, NGC 7023, Caldwell 4) is about 1300 lightyears away in the constellation Cepheus. Imaging notes: April 11, 2026 astro session in the backyard, CarbonStar 150 imaging Newtonian (600mm FL, f/4), ZWO ASI715MC camera (gain 0, 2x2 binning), ZWO AM5 EQ mount, 61 3-minute subs stacked in PixInsight 2x drizzle, 12 dark calibration frames.