The region around the Bubble Nebula is beautiful with a variety of objects including the H II emission Bubble Nebula (NGC 7635), an open cluster (M52), and Ha emission and refection nebulae. Nova Cassiopeiae 2021 (V1405 Cas) has only brightened to about 10th magnitude. It can't bee seen by eye and requires binoculars. With a camera it is the exclamation point on a beautiful scene. From central Texas, it is low in the northeast, best imaged in the hour before astonomical twilight.

I've become a great fan of dual narrow band filters like this Optolong L-eNhance filter which can easily pierce through city light pollution using a one shot color camera. Only three spectral lines are captured Ha Red and blue-green neighbors, Oiii and Hb. The result is light captured by red, green, and blue sensor pixels. With photometric color calibration, the result is a relatively naturally appearing scene.

The nova is the blinking star (solely to indicate its position) in the image below. It is linked to a full resolution image.

Twenty 3 minute exposures for a total of 60 minutes exposure with a William Optics RedCat 250/51mm refractor, Optolong L-eNhance dual band Ha and Oiii filter, ZWO ASI533MC color camera cooled to -10 degrees C. Processed with dark, flat, and bias calibration frames in PixInsight. Both PixInsight muli-scale linear and Topaz DeNoise noise reduction. Final crop and exposure in Photoshop.

A 1:1 crop of the Bubble Nebula below:

A 1:1 crop with Nova Cas 2021 centered:

How light polluted was the sky for this image? Take a look: