How to photograph the Witch Head Nebula (IC 2118)
A faint blue cloud lit by Rigel, shaped like a witch’s profile.
Photo bySousajp7(CC BY-SA 4.0)
When to shoot it from your location
About the Witch Head Nebula
The Witch Head is a large, faint reflection nebula lit by the bright star Rigel in Orion. It needs a dark site, no Moon and many hours of unfiltered data.
Gear and framing
The Witch Head Nebula spans about 3.0° of sky. It frames best with:
- Telephoto (85-300mm lens)
You can see how other people have built their rigs on RigDesigner, including my Sony a6700 and 60mm refractor rig.
Filters
This is a broadband target, which means its light is mostly starlight across the whole spectrum. Shoot it with no filter or a UV/IR cut filter. A broadband light pollution filter can help a little in the suburbs. Dual-band and narrowband filters block most of its light, so leave them off. Plan it for a moonless night at a dark site.
Tips
- Use a 135-200mm lens and keep Rigel at the edge of the frame.
Processing
Stack your light frames with darks and flats, then remove the background gradient before stretching. AstroBake does all of this for you. Point it at your folders of raw frames, then adjust the result with live sliders.