IC 405 - The Flaming Star

IC 405 known as the Flaming Star Nebula, SH 2-229, or Caldwell 31.
IC405 is an emission and reflection nebula in the constellation Auriga.

Right ascension : 5h 16m 15.4s
Declination : 34° 16′ 0″
Size: 30' × 20'
Magnitude: 9

Extended object near a group of young stars that separates it from IC 410, it will appear in the same field as IC 410

Set up

Fra400 on AVX mount
ASI533 MC Pro for imaging
ASI220 mini for guiding via OAG Zwo
Antlia Duo Band 5nm
Control via ASIAIR PLUS

The guiding was correct despite the moon being present at 45%
Generally, without the presence of the moon, I guide around 0.30”.
Here, guiding at 0,50”, it’s fine, I’m happy with that ;)

The session

Image taken in March 2025
66 frames x 600” each
Total integration : 11 hours

Processing

Calibration, Alignment and Stacking via Siril
Processing via Pixinsight

Spectrometry with SPCC under PixInsight : Full of data, I like it

Procedure via PixInsight :
Dynamic Crop
Gradient correction
Image Solver
SPCC
BlurX (Correct only)
NoiseX
EZ Suite Stretch
SNCR to remove the green noise
StarX to remove the stars
Narrowband Normalization on the starless image
Curve saturation on the stars & on the starless image
Luminance Extraction on the starless image
Curve on the starless image (RGB/K & curves)
HDR multiscale transform
Local Histogram equalization (2 times)
Dark structure enhance
Curve for RGB/K (S curve, just a hair)
NoiseX
Pixelmath to bring the stars back

Clear Sky !

IC405 : Classic Version

Starless Version

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