Tag: Cosmos

Capturing Nebula Sh2-239: A Challenge in Astrophotography

Sh2-239 - a dark cloud in Taurus

I’ll start by sharing that this may very well be the most difficult target I have ever imaged. It is shrouded in dark nebula. So much dust that there was at most two guide stars for the OAG on the RC8 to guide on. Processing wasn’t much easier. A slight reflection in the dust off my Antlia Quad-band light pollution filter has caused me to stop it’s use. Going back to the LPro. This target truly needs to be shot with a mono camera.

Cataloged as Sh2-239 and LDN 1551, the region lies near the southern end of the Taurus molecular cloud complex. It is some 450 light-years distant. The region stretches for nearly 3 light-years. It abounds with signs of embedded young stellar objects. These objects drive dynamic outflows into the surrounding medium.

Near the center of the frame is a compact, tell-tale red jet of shocked hydrogen gas. It is close to the position of infrared source IRS5. IRS5 is known to be a system of protostars surrounded by dust disks. Just below it are the wings of HH 102. They are broader and brighter. HH 102 is one of the region’s many Herbig-Haro objects. These are nebulosity’s linked to newly born stars. Estimates suggest that the star forming LDN 1551 region contains a large amount of material. This amount is equivalent to about 50 times the mass of the Sun.

The image was captured with a RC8 f/8 telescope. The focal length was 1625mm. An ASI071MC camera was used atop a Skywatcher Eq6r Pro mount. Imaged from my driveway in the hills of western North Carolina. Session management by Astro Photography Tool (APT 4.60). Image calibrated, aligned, integrated, and processed in a natural colors manually in PixInsight.

Exploring Sh2-284: The Colorful Emission Nebula

Sh2-284 & LBN 984 - space dust in Monoceros

Sh2-284 is a colorful emission nebula in the constellation Monoceros. It is the southernmost in a chain of nebulae below the Rosette Nebula. It is by far the most interesting of the three. It does not have a nickname, but is often mistakenly called the Little Rosette Nebula (which is in fact Sh2-270).

There is so much in this image I much prefer to look at the annotated version in Astrobin. I encourage you to have a look, no strings!

Sh2-284 can be found in Monoceros in the Winter sky. It is not far from the brightest star in the sky: Sirius, as well as Betelgeuse in Orion. Sh2-284 can be seen from a dark site using a telescope or a pair of binoculars. It looks similar to the Rosette Nebula, but slightly fainter and much smaller.

Sh2-284 is a star formation region, and at its center there is a cluster of young stars, dubbed Dolidze 25. The radiation from this cluster is powerful enough to ionize the hydrogen gas in the nebula’s cloud. It is this ionization that produces its bright orange and red colors.

This image consists of 231 exposures, each 300 seconds long. They were taken with a Skywatcher Esprit 120ED telescope and an ASI2600MC OSC camera at f/15. The setup was atop a Skywatcher Eq6r Pro mount. Astro Photography Tool (APT4.60) handled the acquisition session management and automation coordinating all of the gear used. These images were calibrated, aligned, integrated and processed manually in its natural colors using PixInsight.

Exploring Sh2-290: The Ancient Planetary Nebula

Sh2-290 Planetary Nebula in Cancer

Sh2-290 (also known as Abell 31 or PK 219+31.1) is an ancient planetary nebula in the constellation of Cancer. It is estimated to be about 2,000 light years away.

Although it is one of the largest planetary nebulae in the sky, it is not very bright. The central star of the planetary nebula is a white dwarf with a spectral type of DAO. A planetary nebula is created when a low-mass star blows off its outer layers at the end of its life. The white dwarf is the dead remains of a star that existed but had died leaving behind Sh2-290. This is exactly what is expected of our star when it runs out of fuel in about 5 billion years.

Sh2-290 is made mostly of hydrogen and oxygen gas. The red gas signifies hydrogen gas, and the greenish hues signify the oxygen gas. The nebula has a bright central region being most of the nebula and a red ring around this blue/green region. The nebula, due to its ancient age, has its gas being dispersed into the interstellar medium.

This image was captured over five nights in January 2025. The image consists of 192 exposures, each lasting 5 minutes. These were taken with an f/8 RC8 telescope at 1626mm fl. An asi071MC color camera, cooled to 15f, was used atop a Skywatcher Eq6r pro mount. Image acquisition using Astro Photography Tool (APT) and processed manually in PixInsight.

Astrobin Link

Sh2-278 Nebula in Orion

Sh2-278 in Orion

Sh2-278 sits halfway between M 42 and the Witch’s Head Nebula in the Orion constellation, about 2.5° north of Rigel. It has a triangular structure that is prominent in H-alpha. This structure is surrounded by several faint reflection nebulae. These include LBN 964 to the east, LBN 945 to the northwest, and LBN 937/LBN 942 to the north. It is an incredibly pretty and unique object, but it is very faint. The combination of dim molecular cloud with ionized hydrogen makes it challenging both to capture and to process.

The glow here may be extended red emission. It sits just off the edge of the Orion A molecular cloud. This is the cloud containing M42. However, it is not clear if it is a remnant of that group or a distinct cloud.

Imaged from my driveway in the hills of WNC. Session management with Astro Photography Tool (APT 4.60), image processed manually with PixInsight processes.

It’s referred to as the Wolf Head Nebula, but I don’t see it.

Astrobin Link ==> https://astrob.in/6j0jyd/0/

NGC 3079 – Phantom Frisbee Galaxy

NGC 3079 - The Phantom Frisbee Galaxy

A barred spiral galaxy about 50 million light-years away, and located in the constellation Ursa Major. I found this to be bright, small, and colorful. At 1625mm fl with the RC8 it still looks small. Session management with Astrophotography Tool (APT); processing in PixInsight.

50 Million Light-Years..

Sh2-216 – Planetary Nebula

Sh2-216 - Planetary Nebula in Perseus

This is Sh2-216. It is a planetary nebula in the constellation Perseus. Planetary nebulae get their name because they are generally spherical. In the crude telescopes of centuries past, they appeared similar to the much closer planets of our own solar system. The astronomers of old did not realize the scale of our galaxy. They assumed these nebulae might be similar to our planetary brothers. This led to their name.

These objects are remnants of a stage in the death of larger stars. During this stage, stars convulse and blow off their outer layers of material into space. In the case of Sh2-216, the stellar explosion occurred some half million years ago. It left behind the core of the progenitor star, a white dwarf. There is also a slowly expanding cloud of mostly ionized hydrogen.

This particular object is the closest planetary nebula to us at only 400 light years distance. It’s proximity also makes it the largest in apparent diameter at 1.6 degrees – over three times that of our Moon. But it is very FAINT! The expanding hydrogen gas is extremely thin, requiring long exposure photography to show it. It is completely invisible to the naked eye, and isn’t visible in a single five minute camera exposure. This is a stack of 222 5 minute exposures, or 18.5 hours.

It won’t fit in my 860 mm Fl Esprit 120ED due to its size. Therefore, I focused on a bright outer band of gas. Image acquisition using APT 4.60. Processed manually in PI.

Astrobin – https://astrob.in/qwvo2i/0

LBN 673 – The Soul Nebula core

LBN 673 - The Soul Nebula core

A beautiful range of starry peaks, known as LBN 673, connects two cloud structures within the Soul Nebula (IC 1848). The Soul Nebula is a large emission nebula located in Cassiopeia and is often associated with its companion Heart Nebula.

LBN 673 is an emission nebula contained with the Soul Nebula. A close look at the structures within was my goal. I see a troll guarding the bridge in a crevasse between two peeks, but that’s just me. The entire area reminds me of those Rorschach tests the shrinks use. Have a go. See what you see?

https://astrob.in/bwo2o7/0 Astrobin link for this image.

Sh2-227 – Hii in Auriga

Sh2-227 - Hii in Auriga

You don’t see a lot of images of Sh2-227. It’s really faint, and it is outshone by nearby IC405 (Flaming Star Nebula) and IC410 (The Tadpoles). I initially wanted to capture it to see what structure I could reveal. After 8 hours, I felt like I’d got a fair image of the regions. However, I wanted less noise. So, I spent another 7.5 hours on it.

Sh2-227 is an emission nebula visible in the constellation Auriga. It is located within the large pentagon that constitutes the constellation. It is a short distance from the open cluster NGC 1857, seen at the bottom of this image. The best period for its observation in the evening sky falls between the months of October and March. Observers find it considerably easier to observe in the regions of the Earth’s northern hemisphere.

Sh2-302 – Snowman Nebula

Sh2-302 Snowman Nebula

Sh2-302, also known as the Snowman Nebula, is an ionized hydrogen (Hii) emission nebula. It is located in the constellation Puppis. It is about 5,800 light years away. Also designated as LBN 1046, this object is classified as an emission nebula because it contains ionized hydrogen. It’s part of the Gum Nebula, which occupies the lower southern skies in our winter. The nebula has a visual diameter of 15 arc minutes. It is located near the boundary between Puppis and Canis Major.

Sh2-302 is one of many objects in a catalog compiled by astronomer Stewart Sharpless to identify areas of interstellar ionized hydrogen, or HII regions. I’ve enjoyed imaging items from this catalog over the fall/winter months as we await galaxy season.

A dark band crosses it on the southeast side. It is part of a molecular nebulous complex located at the outer edge of the Orion Arm. This complex is about 1800 parsecs (about 5900 light-years) away. Sh2-302 contains a molecular bipolar jet in its interior. A very massive protostar probably generates this jet. It originated from the impact between the ionized region and the surrounding molecular cloud.

Other star-forming phenomena are witnessed by the presence of the small open cluster NGC 2409, which size is just 0.1 parsecs, formed by twenty stars and located a short distance from the IRAS source. On the eastern edge of the nebula, a small part of the dust is illuminated by a star of the tenth magnitude. This forms the reflection nebula cataloged as vdB 97.

I captured this photograph from my driveway using a Skywatcher Esprit 120ED telescope at a fl of 840mm and a ZWO ASI2600MC Pro astrophotography camera. These are mounted on a Skywatcher EQ6r Pro German Equatorial Mount. The image acquisition software I used to control everything is APT 4.60 (Astro Photography Tool). Total exposure of 13 hrs. 75 exposures were integrated and processed using Pixinsight.

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