NGC 7380, also known as the Wizard Nebula, is an open star cluster located in the constellation Cepheus, approximately 7,200 light-years from Earth. It is surrounded by an emission nebula, formed by gas ionized by the hot, young stars in the cluster. This cluster is relatively young, with stars only a few million years old. NGC 7380 is a popular target for amateur astronomers due to its fascinating structure and visibility with modest telescopes. The nebula resembles a wizard pointing a wand, hence its evocative name.
It was captured from the garden of my house in Cannet-des-Maures in the Var region (France). The equipment used includes an ASI 1600MM monochrome camera coupled with a SW 200mm F/D=5 on an EQ6-R Pro mount. A filter wheel was used with 3nm Antlia SII, Ha and OIII filters for the nebula and Antlia RGB filters for the stars. The image required 5 nights of exposure, from August 31 to September 10, 2024, for a total acquisition time of 33 hours and 50 minutes, including 10 hours and 30 minutes in SII, 10 hours in Ha, 11 hours and 5 minutes in OIII with 300” exposures, and 45 minutes for each RGB filter with 60” exposures. Autoguiding was performed using an ASI 120mm mini camera coupled with an Artesky 60mm refractor. The setup was controlled with an ASIAIR Plus. Pre-processing and processing were done using PixInsight and Photoshop