IC 443 (also known as the Jellyfish Nebula and Sharpless 248 (Sh2-248)) is a galactic supernova remnant in the constellation Gemini. It lies adjacent to the emission nebula Sharpless 249, a star forming region, in the left half of this image. Some really smart folk who’ve been studying this believe that IC 443 may be the remains of a supernova (Star Explosion) that occurred 3,000 – 30,000 years ago. The same supernova event likely created the neutron star CXOU J061705, the collapsed remnant of the stellar core. The shock wave from the explosion produced the particularly intricate lacework of nebulosity that makes up the Jellyfish. The nebula, which is about 5,000 light years away, is adjacent to a rich region of star formation called Sharpless 249. IC 443 is one of the best-studied cases of supernova remnants interacting with surrounding molecular clouds.
The region is bordered by two very bright stars – Propus to the right and Tejat on the left. I find these two by lining up Alnitak (bottom star in Orions Belt) with the bright red star Betelgeuse and continuing about as far again. The two little stars are visible to the naked eye.
Eta Geminorum is the star’s Bayer designation. The traditional names Tejat Prior, Propus (from the Greek, meaning forward foot) and Praepes and Pish Pai (from the Persian Pīshpāy, پیشپای, meaning foreleg). In 2016, the International Astronomical Union organized a Working Group on Star Names (WGSN) to catalog and standardize proper names for stars. The WGSN’s first bulletin of July 2016 included a table of the first two batches of names approved by the WGSN; which included Propus for this star. Between the Propus and Tejat are several faint areas of nebulosity. IC 443, the jellyfish while further east around μ Gem is the emission nebula Sh 249 (left side of image). In between is the small faint emission nebula IC 444 (the bridge between the jellyfish and Sh 249).
Image captured with a ASI071MC Pro camera attached to a WO Z73 refractor telescope riding a SkyWatcher EQ6r Pro equitorial mount. Image acquisition with APT and processed manually in PixInsight. Exposures of 240s(28), 360s(94), 600s(32) – totaling 996 minutes, or 16.6 hours. All at unity gain and cooled to 20f. Calibration masters utilized.
There’s so much going on in this image. I try to describe it all but take a moment and enjoy all there is within. Three distinct Nebulae and two star clusters – one image of a tiny piece of the sky.
Sharpless 157, sometimes referred as the Lobster Claw Nebula, is an emission nebula in the constellation Cassiopeia. The predominantly yellowish part of the top of the nebula is a very large H II region that is ring-shaped by the stellar wind of several giant stars. The blueish colored arms at the bottom part of the Ha region mainly consist of highly ionized oxygen (OIII) and other gases.
Located to the right of the lobsters claws in the middle of the image is NGC 7635, also known as the Bubble Nebula, or Sharpless 162. It is a very bright H II region emission nebula, also in the constellation Cassiopeia. It lies close to the direction of the open cluster Messier 52. The “bubble” is created by the stellar wind from a massive hot, 8.7 magnitude young central star, SAO 20575. The nebula is near a giant molecular cloud which contains the expansion of the bubble nebula while itself being excited by the hot central star, causing it to glow. It was discovered in 1787 by William Herschel.
Cassiopeia Salt & Pepper Cluster Messier 52 or M52, also known as NGC 7654, is an open cluster of stars in the northern constellation of Cassiopeia. It was discovered by Charles Messier on September 7, 1774. In the image it is located just to the lower-right of the buble nebula. It’s a dense cluster with colorful stars with a nebulous backdrop.
NGC 7538, Northen Lagoon Nebula (Brain Nebula), near the more famous Bubble Nebula, is located in the constellation Cepheus. It is a region of active star formation including several luminous near-IR and far-IR sources. It also is very bright and is located at the bottom middle of the image. You’ll notice the nebulosity to the right of NGC 7538 – it’s part of the cepheus nebula region which reaches all the way over to NGC 7000.
NGC 7510, Dormouse Cluster, is an open cluster of stars located around 11,400 light years away in the constellation Cepheus, near the border with Cassiopeia. In this image it’s located on the bottom of the left “claw”, a mix of OIII and Ha gases.
I certainly hope you enjoy this image as much as I do. Such a lovely part of our night sky.
Orion Nebula (M42); De Mairan’s Nebula (M43); Running Man Nebula (Sh2-279)
The Orion Nebula (also known as Messier 42, M42, or NGC 1976) is a diffuse nebula situated in the Milky Way south of Orion’s Belt in the constellation of Orion. It is one of the brightest nebulae, and is visible to the naked eye in the night sky. M42 is located at a distance of 1,344 light years and is the closest region of massive star formation to Earth. The M42 nebula is estimated to be 24 light years across. It has a mass of about 2,000 times that of the Sun.
De Mairan’s Nebula (M43) is a star-forming nebula with a prominent H II region in the equatorial constellation of Orion. It was discovered by the French scientist Jean-Jacques Dortous de Mairan some time before 1731, then catalogued by French astronomer Charles Messier on March 4, 1769. The De Mairan’s Nebula is part of the Orion Nebula (M42), being separated from the main nebula by a dense lane of dust known as the northeast dark lane. It is part of the much larger Orion Molecular Cloud Complex.
The main ionizing star in this nebula is HD 37061, which is positioned near the center of the H II region and located 1,300ly from the Sun. This is a triple star system with the brighter component being a single-lined spectroscopic binary. The main component is a blue-white hued B-type main-sequence star with a stellar classification of B0.5V or B1V. It has 19 times the mass of the Sun and 5.7 times the Sun’s radius. The star is radiating over 26,000 times the Sun’s luminosity from its photosphere at an effective temperature of 31,000 K. It is spinning rapidly with a projected rotational velocity of around 200 km/s.
The H II region of M43 is a roundish volume of ionized hydrogen centered on HD 37061. There is a dark lane crossing in front of the region from north to south, known as the M43 dark lane.
Sh2-279 (Running Man Nebula) is an HII region and bright nebulae that includes a reflection nebula located in the constellation Orion. It is the northernmost part of the asterism known as Orion’s Sword, lying 0.6° north of the Orion Nebula. The reflection nebula embedded in Sh2-279 is popularly known as the Running Man Nebula. The Running Man Nebula is a popular target for amateur astrophotographers, as it lies close to the Orion Nebula and has many nearby guide stars. The outline of the running man shows up primarily in photographs; it is difficult to perceive visually through telescopes, though the reflection nebula itself is visible in small to medium apertures in dark skies.
The Orion Nebula is one of the most scrutinized and photographed objects in the night sky, and is among the most intensely studied celestial features. While that may be true, it was a very difficult target to photograph without blowing out the core and the large stars. It is surrounded by hydrogen gas as seen in the red hues thoughout. The dark nebula of M43 as well as the Running Man nebula add character to the image.
The nebula has revealed much about the process of how stars and planetary systems are formed from collapsing clouds of gas and dust. Astronomers have directly observed protoplanetary disks, brown dwarfs, intense and turbulent motions of the gas, and the photo-ionizing effects of massive nearby stars in the nebula.
The Nebula is visible with the naked eye even from areas affected by some light pollution. It is seen as the middle “star” in the “sword” of Orion, which are the three stars located south of Orion’s Belt. The star appears fuzzy to sharp-eyed observers, and the nebulosity is obvious through binoculars or a small telescope.
The Orion Nebula contains a very young open cluster, known as the Trapezium due to the asterism of its primary four stars. Two of these can be resolved into their component binary systems on nights with good seeing, giving a total of six stars. The stars of the Trapezium, along with many other stars, are still in their early years. The Trapezium is a component of the much larger Orion Nebula Cluster, an association of about 2,800 stars within a diameter of 20 light years. Two million years ago this cluster may have been the home of the runaway stars AE Aurigae, 53 Arietis, and Mu Columbae, which are currently moving away from the nebula at speeds greater than 100 km/s (62 mi/s).
There has been speculation that the Mayans of Central America may have described the nebula within their “Three Hearthstones” creation myth; if so, the three would correspond to two stars at the base of Orion, Rigel and Saiph, and another, Alnitak at the tip of the “belt” of the imagined hunter, the vertices of a nearly perfect equilateral triangle with Orion’s Sword (including the Orion Nebula) in the middle of the triangle seen as the smudge of smoke from copal incense in a modern myth, or, in an ancient one, the literal or figurative embers of a fiery creation.
I encourage you to have a read of the wikipedia information available. The observing and photographic history of this complex is very interesting. Who knew that in the 1600’s people made telescopes?
The Rosette Nebula is an H II region located near one end of a giant molecular cloud in the Monoceros region of the Milky Way Galaxy. The open cluster NGC 2244 is closely associated with the nebulosity, the stars of the cluster having been formed from the nebula’s matter.
The Rosette Nebula is a cloud of dust containing enough material to make about 10,000 stars like our Sun. In the center of the nebula, and off to the right hand side of this image, is a cluster of hot, bright young stars. These are warming up the surrounding gas and dust, making it appear blue.
The Rosette is a very busy area! A survey of the nebula with the Chandra X-ray Observatory has revealed the presence of numerous new-born stars inside optical Rosette Nebula and studded within a dense molecular cloud. Altogether, approximately 2500 young stars lie in this star-forming complex, including the massive O-type stars HD 46223 and HD 46150, which are primarily responsible for blowing the ionized bubble. Most of the ongoing star-formation activity is occurring in the dense molecular cloud to the south east of the bubble.
Another interesting tidbit of knowledge – On April 16, 2019 the Oklahoma Legislature passed HB1292, making the Rosette Nebula the official state astronomical object. Oklahoma Governor Kevin Stitt signed it into law April 22, 2019.
This photograph is comprised of 318 images totaling ~20 hours of exposure taken with a ZWO ASI071MC Pro camera and a WO Z73 scope w/flat7a riding a Skywatcher EQ6r Pro equitorial mount from my driveway parking area. Captured remotely on my laptop running APT & PHD2. Processed manually in PixInsight with PS doing the jpeg conversion.
There are 2 Caldwell designations as well a 5 New General Catalog (NGC) items within this cluster. They can be read about in Wikipedia via a google search. I dare ya!
Sharpless 2-132, the Lion Nebula, is a very faint emission type nebula on the Cepheus/Lacerta border.
Lion Nebula in Cepheus
It is estimated to be about 10,000 to 12,000 light years away, but this is no more than an estimate.
This image consists of 16 hours of exposure from a ZWO ASI071MC OSC camera at -6c. Z73 440mm telescope riding a Skywatcher EQ6r Pro mount. Processed in PixInsight, sharpened and converted to jpg in Photoshop.
Night after night I would shoot this for a few hours with only a faint hint of a bright spot on the screen. Once I had 20 hours of data I began the processing journey. All calibrated, cosmetic correction, debayered, subframe selector weeded out about 4 hours of data that just wasn’t up to par. Weightings assigned, top 20 images identified, all frames registered to the best weighted frame, master reference image created from best 20, all frames reregistered to master reference frame, L_Norm reference frame generated, L_norm ran against all frames, finally image integration was run using calibrated, corrected, debayered, registered, lights & L_norm.
I was very pleasantly surprised when I got my first glimpse of this image. Just a little post processing required.
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A sickle for cutting hay or some sort of weapon – that’s what I first saw.
Flaming Star Nebula
The Flaming Star nebula (IC405 or Caldwell 31) is fairly unique nebula in the constellation Auriga with obvious emission and reflection components.
At first when imaging this target it appears as an isolated piece of Nebula taking the shape of a sickle for cutting hay or long grass back in the day. (yeah, I’m old). But as the stretch began on this image and the Ha & OIII were rejoined the enormity of the nebulosity became apparent.
Specifically, there’s this faint wisp that is present in the center of the nebula. Both components are due, either directly or indirectly (via dust), to the illumination of the bluish runaway star AE Aurigae. It lies ~1500 light years away from Earth and is about five light years across. It is believed that the proper motion of the central star can be traced back to the Orion’s Belt area. This nebula is very close to the Tadpoles nebula (bottom left of the image).
This image is comprised of 248 subs collected in November 2020 – (81 @ 180s; 129 @ 240s; 38 @ 360s = 987 minutes of exposure or 16.45 hours)
Gear: EQ6r Pro Eq mount; WO Z73 scope; ZWO ASI071MC Pro OSC camera; WO 50mm guidescope; ZWO ASI120mm mini guide camera; Senso Sesto 2 Focuser; Pegasus PBA; Polemaster
Software: Stellarium for planning; APT for image capture; PHD2 guiding; Pixinsight for processing; PS for metadata update and jpg creation.
One may wonder what the three of them have in common. They occupy a very small place in space.
Tadpoles, Spider, Fly – all Nebula
IC410 (bottom right), referred to as the Tadpoles Nebula, is a dusty emission nebula located in the constellation of Auriga about 12,000 ly from Earth. It is part of a larger star forming region that also contains the huge Flaming Star Nebula C 31 (upper right).
The gas structures in IC 410 are lit by the radiation from the open star cluster NGC1893 that lies in its center. This star cluster is about 4 million years old, but in astronomical terms it is still very young, with hot, massive stars.
At the top-left of the star cluster two more dense structures are visible. These are similar to the famous Pillar of Creation and they are composed of dust and gas leftover from the formation of the star cluster and are very likely to give birth to more stars in the future. As can be seen in the picture, these structures point away from the center of the nebula. This is because of the stellar winds and radiation pressure from the stars in NGC 1893. Due to these structure’s shape, the nebula is also called the Tadpoles Nebula.
IC417, located towards the middle of the picture, is named the Spider nebula – requires imagination but in context with NGC1931 (The Fly Nebula) located on the left middle of the image it makes perfect sense.
When I started imaging this target I really had no idea there would be so much nebulosity – everywhere! The very bright stars of the Tadpoles were visible, but the structures from the Flaming Star Nebula region were a nice surprise.
I printed this image on metal with an acrylic wall mount for my own collection.
The North America Nebula (NGC 7000 or Caldwell 20) is an emission nebula in the constellation Cygnus, close to Deneb (the tail of the swan and its brightest star). The apparent shape of the nebula resembles that of the continent of North America, complete with a prominent Gulf of Mexico.
There’s much more to this image than what you initially think you see. Layers upon layers of gases in space create illusions. There’s A massively bright star illuminating all of the gases you see. It’s all the same gas field. There’s a huge Dark Nebula so thick that the light from that massively bright star cannot penetrate it – creating the illusion of a gulf of Mexico and a divide between the “two” nebula. Another layer nature added for contrast I’m sure is the Cygnus wall lining the left edge of the nebula. Cygnus’s Wall is a term for the “Mexico and Central America part” of the North America Nebula and exhibits the most concentrated star formations in the nebula. It too is so dense light from behind it does not pass through.
The North America Nebula is part of the same interstellar cloud of ionized hydrogen (H II region) as the Pelican Nebula, separated by a dark band of dust, and listed the two nebulae together as Sh2-117. American astronomer Beverly T. Lynds catalogued the obscuring dust cloud as L935 in her 1962 compilation of dark nebulae. The distinctive dark nebula known as LDN 935 (it should perhaps be called the Hudson Bay nebula). This dark nebula lies at the front of the North America nebula and it blocks the light behind it.
Seeing it: The North America Nebula covers a region more than ten times the area of the full moon, but its surface brightness is low, so normally it cannot be seen with the unaided eye. Binoculars and telescopes with large fields of view (approximately 3°) will show it as a foggy patch of light under sufficiently dark skies. However, using a UHC filter, which filters out some unwanted wavelengths of light, it can be seen without magnification under dark skies. Its shape and reddish color (from the hydrogen Hα emission line) show up only in photographs of the area.
Size: The North America and Pelican nebulae lie 2,590 light years away (795±25 parsecs). The whole HII region Sh2-117 is then 140 light years across, and the North America Nebula stretches 90 light years north to south.
What lights it?: In 2004, European astronomers Fernando Comerón and Anna Pasquali searched for the ionizing star behind L935 at infrared wavelengths, using data from the 2MASS survey, and then made detailed observations of likely suspects with the 2.2 m telescope at the Calar Alto Observatory in Spain. One star, catalogued J205551.3+435225, fulfilled all the criteria. Lying right in the centre of Sh2-117, with a temperature of over 40,000° K, it is almost certainly the ionising star for the North America and Pelican Nebulae.
Later observations have revealed J205551.3+435225 is a spectral type O3.5 star, with another hot star (type O8) in orbit. J205551.3+435225 lies just off the “Florida coast” of the North America Nebula, so it has been more conveniently nicknamed the Bajamar Star (“Islas de Bajamar,” meaning “low-tide islands” in Spanish, was the original name of the Bahamas because many of them are only easily seen from a ship during low tide).
Although the light from the Bajamar Star is dimmed by 9.6 magnitudes (almost 10,000 times) by the dark cloud L935, it is faintly visible at optical wavelengths, at magnitude 13.2. If we saw this star undimmed, it would shine at magnitude 3.6, almost as bright as Albireo, the star marking the swan’s head.
I hope you find this photo as interesting as I do. So much to see.
Known as NGC 1499, the classic emission nebula is around 100 light-years long. In this image, the most prominent glow of the California Nebula is the red light characteristic of hydrogen atoms recombining with long lost electrons, stripped away (ionized) by energetic starlight.
The Soul Nebula is an emission nebula located in the constellation Cassiopeia.
Soul Nebula in Cassiopeia
In astrophotography the key to a good image is integration time, especially if you image with a broadband color camera. This image now consists of 6 hours of exposure on this target. As a newbie in this hobby it takes me time to process an image so I try to wait until sufficient data has been collected before starting the process. Of course opportunities for imaging are sparse in the cloudy nights of summer here in the blue ridge. Fall is coming!
The Soul Nebula is an emission nebula located in the constellation Cassiopeia. It forms a famous pair known as the Heart and Soul with the neighbouring Heart Nebula (IC 1805). The Soul Nebula is sometimes also known as the Embryo Nebula or IC 1848, which is a designation used for the open star cluster embedded within the nebula.
The Heart and Soul Nebulae complex spans an area about 300 light years across and is a vast star-forming region illuminated by the light of the young stars surrounded by star-forming clouds of dust and gas. The two large clouds are separated by only 2.5 degrees and physically connected by a bridge of gas. The stars in the region are less than a few million years old and are only beginning their life. For comparison, our Sun has been around for almost 5 billion years.
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