Mirfak, Alpha Persei and the Starry Neighborhood

Welcome, fellow stargazers, to a celestial journey into the constellation Perseus! Today, we're shining a spotlight on Mirfak, also known as Alpha Persei (α Per). This magnificent yellow supergiant star is the heart of the Alpha Persei Cluster, a young open star cluster approximately 510 light-years away from our humble planet.

Observing Mirfak is like looking at a beacon in the night sky. Its sheer brilliance is a testament to its status as a supergiant, and its presence anchors a beautiful collection of stars that paint a vivid picture of our cosmic neighborhood.

The Quest for Clarity: Acquisition and Processing

Capturing the nuances of deep-sky objects requires dedication and a robust set of tools. Here's a breakdown of the equipment and software used to bring this image to life:

Acquisition Details:

• Telescope: Sky Watcher Evo 72ED with 0.85 field flattener
• Main Camera: Canon EOS 2000D (stock, unmodified)
• Guide Scope: SV165 30mm F4
• Guide Camera: ZWO ASI120MM
• Mount: Sky Watcher HEQ5 Pro
• AP Station: ASIAIR Plus
• Filters: None
• Bortle Scale: 4.4

Data Collection:

• Lights: 139 x 60 seconds, ISO 1600
• Darks: 20 x 60 seconds, ISO 1600
• Flats: 30 x 200.0 ms, ISO 1600
• Biases: 30 x 1.0 ms, ISO 1600

Software Orchestration:

The entire acquisition process, including guiding, was managed flawlessly by the ASIAIR Plus. An Autorun session was meticulously set up to capture the light, dark, bias, and flat frames.

The Art of Processing:

Bringing out the detail in astronomical images is an art form, and this image was no exception. The processing journey involved:

1. Stacking: Performed using Siril version 1.4.0-beta2 with the OSC_Preprocessing script.
2. Star Correction: PixInsight was used to correct elongated stars with BlurXterminator, addressing potential tilt issues.
3. Gradient Removal: The Automatic Background Extractor (ABE) in PixInsight was employed to remove background gradients caused by distant city lights.
4. Color Calibration and Enhancement: SpectrophotometricColorCalibration (SPCC) was utilized for accurate color correction, followed by SCNR to remove any residual green hues.
5. Star Manipulation: Stars were separated using StarXterminator. The background was then stretched with GHS and Curves to reveal faint white dust, and NoiseXterminator was used to reduce noise.
6. Photoshop Tweaks: Further color adjustments were made in Photoshop via Camera Raw.
7. Final Integration: The processed starless image and the enhanced star layer were merged back together in PixInsight using PixelMatx, with final touches to star color and intensity.

A Glimpse into the Future

During processing, a faint white dust was detected in the background. While there wasn't enough data to fully showcase it in this iteration, the plan is to revisit this data in the future with more capture time to bring these subtle details to the forefront. The current dataset comprises approximately 2.5 hours of exposure time.

This image is a testament to the beauty of the night sky and the power of modern astrophotography tools. We hope you enjoy this glimpse of Mirfak and its stellar companions!