Higher-resolution versions:  1680 x 1050  3984 x 2618

This pair of large, faint emission nebulae are difficult to observe visually, requiring moderately large apertures to be detected. IC 405, on the right, is also known as the Flaming Star Nebula and contains the hot, blue variable star AE Aurigae. Radiation from AE Aurigae causes the gas in IC 405 to glow red, while dust creates the bluish  reflection nebula near the star. AE Aurigae formed in the consteallation Orion and is traveling through IC 405 at about 100 kilometers per second. IC 410 contains the open star cluster NGC 1893, which is actually easier to see in a telescope than the surrounding nebulosity.

Equipment: Vixen 102-ED/TS Optics field flattener/STL-11000M/Astrodon LRGB filters/Paramount ME
F-ratio: f/6.5
Exposures: LRGB: L 10 x 6 minutes: R 11 x 6 minutes: G 10 x 6 minutes: B 10 x 6 minutes: RGB binned 2x2
Date: February 13, 2010
Location: Landers, California, USA
Technical Notes: Individual exposures were obtained using CCDAutoPilot2 and then sigma combined. The RGB image was created in Registar 1.0. Reduce Noise was applied to the RGB image and to the dim portions of the luminance image. A high-pass filter with a radius of 4 pixels was selectively applied to a copy of the luminance image.