The Packman Nebula (NGC 281) is an emission nebula in Cassiopeia. It is about 4,100 light years away and is about ½ degree by ½ degree so roughly the same apparent size as the full moon.

This image was taken from a remote observatory in West Virginia and used the observatory owner’s equipment. This was the first image I’ve done with a CCD camera rather than a CMOS camera and while I don’t want to generalize the data was somewhat cleaner. The noise was still there, of course, but the low frequency noise that is so troublesome for me on the ASI1600 was not present here.

This is about 11 hours of data acquired over two nights. You can see all the technical details on astrobin.