IC 348 - Reflection Nebula in Perseus - Astrophotography
IC 348 is a reflection nebula located about 1,000 light-years away in the constellation Perseus. IC 348 is often imaged alongside NGC1333 wide-field due to how close the two nebulae are. These are not particularly popular beginner astrophotography targets, but can be fun challenging objects to image with any telescope.
Object Designation: IC 348, Collinder 41
Constellation: Perseus
Object Type: Reflection Nebula
Distance: 1,000 light-years away
Magnitude: 7.3
Discovery: Truman Safford on December 1st, 1866
In the northern hemisphere, the nebula starts to rise at a good time in October and stays high until January. This means the best time to photograph IC 348 is in the Winter season.
IC 348 Astrophotography from a Dark Site
March 2024
We used our fast RASA 8 telescope and ZWO ASI2600MC color camera to capture this object, from the dark skies of Astronomy Acres in New Mexico.
You can see the image here, with the bright cluster of stars in the center, surrounded by thick amounts of space dust, and even some hydrogen alpha gas! The fast optics of the RASA, the dark skies of New Mexico, and the 23 hours of exposure time helped make all that faint dust very obvious in our final image.
Click the picture to see it in high resolution!
GEAR USED:
Camera: ZWO ASI2600MC
Telescope: Celestron RASA 8
Mount: 10Micron GM2000 HPS
Accessories: Celestron Focuser / PrimaLuceLab Eagle 5S
Processing: Pixinsight, with R-C Astro plugins. Final touches in Skylum Luminar Neo
ACQUISITION DETAILS:
Total Exposure Time: 23 hours
Exposure Time per frame: 300 seconds
Filters: N/A
Gain: 100
How to Find IC 348
It is not possible to spot IC 348 with the naked eye, but you might be able to see the cluster of stars using large binoculars or a telescope from a dark site. IC348 is located close to other popular deep-sky objects, such as the California Nebula, the Pleiades cluster, and the Messier 34 open cluster. It is also extremely close to NGC1333, which can be captured in the same frame if doing a mosaic or using a camera lens.
The IC 348 nebula can be found about 1,000 light-years away in the constellation Perseus, completely on the edge towards Aries. A good way to find it is to spot the bright star on the south side of Perseus, and to slowly make your way towards the closest bright star of the Aries constellation. Both IC 348 and NGC 1333 will be found halfway between the two bright stars.
The best time to observe and photograph IC 348 is in Winter.
IC 348 by NASA and the James Webb Space Telescope
IC 348 is full of dust, as it lies within the busy Perseus Molecular Cloud. What surprised me was to see hydrogen alpha also present in the field of view, which is very interesting!
On December 13, 2023, NASA released a picture of IC 348 taken with the James Webb Space Telescope.
Above you can see the map of the known stars making up the IC 348 cluster. The red rectangle you see near the center is the field of view of the JWST when it captured the data.
Astronomers discovered three brown dwarfs in the star cluster through the JWST observations. The brown dwarves have masses between 3-8 times that of Jupiter and temperatures from 830 to 1,500 degrees Celsius.
The data obtained surprised scientists due to the unexpected hydrocarbon signatures compared to what was previously known about brown dwarf atmospheres. You can read the full paper here.
On the image, the bright members of the star cluster are easily visible with their beautiful diffraction spikes. The gas behind the stars is mostly pink and dim yellow, due to the color combination chosen for the filters.
The filters used by the JWST for this image are F277W, F360M, and F444W. We teach you how to understand and process these filters in our NASA Data Processing Course.
Single Shot and Processing of IC 348
Below you can see what a single 5-minute shot of IC 348 looks like, taken from a Bortle 1 site with RASA f/2 telescope. The dark clouds are visible, and the bright stars in the center are also very obvious, but none of the beautiful colorful faint gasses appear just yet!
Processing IC 348 is fun but not easy, as you will need to do your very best to enhance the very faint dust lanes without blowing up the bright stars in the center. You'll also have to try your best to bring out the red color from the nearby HA region, which looks nice in the final result.
A similar target we shot recently that is similar in terms of processing is the Embryo Nebula (NGC1333). If you'd like to give processing a shot, you can get our practice dataset or our full resolution data that includes a 4K walkthrough video below!
IC348 FAQ
In which constellation is IC 348 located?
You can find the IC348 Nebula in the constellation Perseus.
How big is IC348?
The nebula has a diameter of 3.4 light-years.
How far is IC 348?
The Nebula is located about 1,000 light-years away from Earth.
How long should my exposure times be when photographing IC 348?
We suggest doing 10-minute exposures for this object although, if like us, you are using a very fast telescope (f/2) from a Bortle 1 site, 5-minute exposures will be more than enough.
Should I use a filter to image the IC 348 Nebula?
This is a great broadband target so you do not need any specific filter for this. If you'd like to, you can spend some time with the HA filter to reveal the hydrogen alpha present nearby!
IC348 Astrophotography - Final Thoughts
This Nebula is very fun to capture and process, and is a great intermediate target for astrophotographers looking for a challenge. We recommend a dark site if you'd like to get the best out of the dark lanes, and long exposure times to ensure your final image is impressive and free of noise.
Clear Skies,
Antoine & Dalia Grelin
Galactic Hunter
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