In early March 2022 I returned back to Schrick to enjoy again a clear new moon night and to take another shot of a prominent winter milky way region. Way before I got my 80 mm Esprit refractor in 2016, I imaged this region in 2011 with my 200 mm telephoto lens and it was obvious for me that I would like to explore this area in further detail once I had the right equipment to do so.

Unfortunately I had technical troubles with my guiding equipment, so I lost almost 1 hour from the four hours I scheduled my exposure. The fact that the picture is a bit noisier than planned makes it not more than a simple 1536 x 1024 resolution version if you click on the picture.

The higher magnification compared to the 200 mm version does not only allow to explore the red supernova remnant more closely, but also to study the blueish reflection nebula IC 444 around the bright blue star at the upper center. Also mind the tiny nebula DC 99 right of it, which interestingly shows a dark band through the dust cloud reflecting the light of embedded stars. A much more prominent case of a similar phenomenon can be seen in the "Trifid nebula". Maybe I should plan for a close-up picture with my 8" telescope next winter...

The supernova remnant IC 443 was discovered in 1892 by the German astrophotograph pioneer Max Wolf and is estimated to be around 5000 light years away from earth.