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Object Data: IC 2118 (Witch Head Nebula) in the constellation of Eridanus is a large area of reflection nebulosity lying 2.6° to the west of Rigel in Orion.
Date: 22/10/98
Location: Southern France
Conditions: Calm, Transparency=7, Seeing=5
Telescope / Lens: Nikon 400mm f/3.5 working at f/4 mounted piggyback on Meade LX200 which was used as the mount and guiding system.
Off-Axis Guider: None
Autoguider: SBIG ST-4
Camera: Nikon F2
Film: Hypersensitised Kodak Ektapress Mulitspeed PJM-2
Filtration: None
Exposures: 22/10/98: 4x 20 mins.Enhancement: Four negatives were stacked in register and digitally combined in Picture Window, then further enhanced in Photoshop
Notes: This object is fainter than I had expected and the proofs from the photo lab showed no nebulosity at all! Despite the quadruple stack, a significant amount of enhancement in Photoshop was required. Two things that probably contributed to the problem were the mediocre transparency and the relatively low elevation of this area from southern France (average elevation about 30° during the four exposures). Many thanks to Jerry Lodriguss for his excellent technique: Digitally Removing Uneven Field Illumination which was used on all four images prior to stacking.
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