Nebula – Semper Iuvenis Photography

Sh2-274 – The Medusa Nebula

Sh2-274, also known as the Medusa Nebula or Abell 21, is a planetary nebula in the constellation Gemini.

It is located 1,500 light-years away and has an estimated diameter of 4 light-years. The nebula is around 8,800 years old and was discovered in 1955 by UCLA astronomer George O. Abell

A planetary nebula is a region of cosmic gas and dust formed from the cast-off outer layers of a dying star. Despite their name, planetary nebulae have nothing to do with planets.

When stars with an intermediate mass (greater than 80% of the Sun’s mass, but less than eight times its mass) die, they expand to form red giants. The dying star will continue to expel gas, whilst simultaneously the remaining core of the star contracts and temporarily begins to radiate energy again. This energy causes the expelled gas to ionise, meaning that the atoms and molecules in the gas become charged and begin to emit light. The cast-off glowing gas is known as a planetary nebula. Therefore, planetary nebulae are classified as emission nebulae, and are entirely unrelated to planets.

The misnomer came about because of a historical misclassification. 250 years ago, astronomers thought they were looking at gas planets when they observed the colourful spectacle of planetary nebulae through their less powerful telescopes. Planetary nebulae only last for about 20 000 years, making them a very short-lived part of the stellar life cycle.

Sh2-302 – Snowman Nebula

Sh2-302, also known as the Snowman Nebula, is a red emission nebula located in the constellation Puppis, about 5,800 light years away. It’s part of the Gum Nebula, which occupies the lower southern skies in winter. The nebula has a visual diameter of 15 arc minutes and 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 captured this photograph Feb 18, 2024 and March 13, 2024 using a Skywatcher Esprit 120ED telescope at a fl of 840mm and a ZWO ASI071MC Pro astrophotography camera with an Antlia quad-band light pollution filter. These are mounted on a Skywatcher EQ6r Pro German Equitorial Mount. The image acquisition software that controls everything is APT (Astro Photography Tool). Total exposure of 4.4 hrs. 75 exposures were integrated and processed using Pixinsight.

vdB 27 – a Reflection in Taurus

Sometimes you are pleasantly surprised by what comes from these reflection nebula. Other times not so much. This image was centered on VdB 27 (catalogued also as Ced 31) – a small reflection nebula in the constellation Taurus. The nebula is illuminated by the radiation of the variable star RY Tauri.

All the image acquisition info, along with an annotated version of this image, is here in my Astrobin page. A dark nebula (B 214) and a bright nebula (LBN 785) along with a few stars.

This small reflection nebula is usually captured as part of a wide field image of this part of the Taurus Molecular cloud. From my driveway here in the hills of NC, I chose to narrow that view a bit and image it with a RC8 at a focal length of 1628mm using the ASI071MC Pro camera with a Antlia Quadband light pollution filter.

This is 110 3 minute exposures taken Feb 13 and 14, 2024 for 5.5 hours of total exposure.

NGC 2170 – The Angel Nebula

NGC 2170, also known as the Angel Nebula

The Angel Nebula is a reflection nebula and stellar nursery in the Monoceros constellation. It is located about 2,400 light-years away at the edge of the star-forming molecular cloud Monoceros R2.

In this classic celestial still life created with a digital paintbrush the Angel Nebula shines near the image center. Reflecting the light of nearby hot stars, NGC 2170 is joined by other bluish reflection nebulae, a red emission region, many dark absorption nebulae, and a backdrop of colorful stars.

I’ve presented this in a portrait mode to highlight the angel appearance.

Sh2-232 “Great Pumpkin” of Auriga

Sh2-232, Sharpless 232, referred to as the Great Pumpkin Nebula.

Sh2-232 is a faint, small, and diffused nebula ball in the constellation Auriga. It is located in the pentagon of Auriga, about 3 degrees northeast of IC405.

Sh2-232 is the largest and faintest of a group of diffuse nebulae in Auriga. It is ionized by two giant stars, the O9.5 III HD 37737 and an anonymous B0 II class star.

A unique feature of this target is the Planetary Nebula found in the middle of those three central stars (blue dot) – it’s named PK173+03.1. LDN1525 also features prominently as a black vein. SH2-235 looks like a companion ball of gases.

Galaxies of Canes Venatici

NGC 4232

This image is taken from within the constellation Canes Venatici. My intention was to capture as many galaxies as I could within an image and have them resolvable at a focal length of 840mm.

NGC 4231 and NGC 4232 are the two galaxies at the center of this image. NGC 4232 is a Spiral Galaxy in the Canes Venatici constellation. NGC 4232 and NGC 4231 are situated north of the celestial equator and, as such, are more easily visible from the northern hemisphere. NGC 4231 is a Lenticular Galaxy.

NGC 4218 is an intermediate spiral galaxy between NGC 4232 and M 106. It is 57 million light-years from Earth.

The giant in the image is Messier 106. It is an intermediate spiral galaxy about 23 million light-years from earth. It is one of the largest and brightest nearby galaxies, similar in size and luminosity to the Andromeda Galaxy.

NGC 4217 is an edge-on spiral galaxy at the top of the image, which lies approximately 60 million light-years away. It is a possible companion galaxy to Messier 106. One supernova, SN 2022myz (type I, mag. 19), was discovered in NGC 4217 on 19 June 2022.

To the bottom left is the spiral galaxy, NGC 4220. Estimated at 63.8 million light-years away.

LDN 1622 – The Boogeyman Nebula

A molecular cloud within a hydrogen cloud

Astronomers like to name things, based upon resemblance if possible, to make them easier to remember. LDN 1622 is called the “Boogeyman Nebula”.

I chose to image it because of the dense dark molecular cloud structure against the hydrogen rich background. I chose the wider field of the SkyWatcher Esprit 120ED triplet refractor telescope to capture the space behind the huge Barnards Loop hydrogen cloud that is home for the Boogeyman. A cloud within a cloud within a cloud, if you will.

LDN 1622 is close to the plane of our Milky Way Galaxy, close to Barnard’s Loop, a large cloud surrounding the Belt and Sword of Orion. It is a fairly dim target, at 1,300 light-years away, requiring long exposure photography to illuminate its beauty. My image consists of 20.5 hours of exposure using an Antlia quadband light pollution filter with a ZWO 2600MC pro camera on a Skywatcher Eq6r Pro mount.

I hope you enjoy this unique image from the Orion Constellation.

Coddington’s Nebula

Looking up towards the North in my bortle 4 sky reveals bright stars which are somewhat recognizable like Cygnus, Cassiopeia, The Big Dipper, and the rectangle of the big bear (Ursa Major). There doesn’t appear to be much else this time of year, especially with a bright moon, but looks can be deceiving.

When imaging this target with 5 minute exposures (071mc) at a 1625mm focal length (RC8), a faint smudge appears where the galaxy is supposed to be. This is not one of those big bright galaxies we so often see photographed. This image is an integration of 11 hours of exposure. Even then it’s a fairly faint target. A plate-solved version is available here on my Astrobin collection including all of the imaging technical details.

American astronomer Edwin Foster Coddington discovered IC 2574 in 1898. It’s classified as a dwarf irregular galaxy because of its small size and lack of structure. IC 2574 is a member of the M81 group of galaxies (Bode’s, Cigar, Garland galaxies), which is one of the closest groups to our local group. It contains active star-forming regions that show strong H-alpha emissions, especially in the lower left part of the galaxy in my image.

Astronomers consider IC 2574 an irregular dwarf galaxy because it’s small, lacks structure, and is forming stars. Dwarf galaxies are small galaxies made up of a few billion stars. In 1898 it looked like a smear and therefore was called a nebula by Edwin Coddington. Improved resolution of telescopes over time revealed it to be a galaxy. Of course now with the Hubble Telescope, a population census is possible. Cheers!

Cosmic Bat in Orion

Hidden in the outskirts of the Orion constellation, close to the Witchhead Nebula (IC 2118), we can find an area rich in interstellar gas and dust around the reflection nebula NGC 1788. This bright deep sky object attracts our attention among all that faint dust and gas. It is flanked by the dark nebula known as Lynds 1616.

I began imaging NGC 1788 on January 1st and continued on the nights of Jan 4th, 7th, 10th and 11th. I acquired a touch over 200 5 minute exposures. I remember it was bloody cold! This was imaged with the Skywatcher Esprit 120ED telescope at 840mm focal length using a ZWO ASI2600MC camera.

NGC 1788 is about 2,000 light years away from Earth and is sometimes called the “Cosmic Bat” nebula. It is made up of blue reflection regions, lots of dust, and a glowing area of hydrogen gas. It is close to the celestial equator, so it is sometimes visible from both hemispheres at certain times of the year. The brightest star in the nebula is 10th magnitude and is in the northwest sector.

Although this ghostly cloud is rather isolated from Orion’s bright stars, their powerful winds and light have a strong impact on the nebula, forging its shape and making it a home to a multitude of newborn stars.

I’ve enjoyed imaging these reflection nebula showing something a little different in our night sky.

Cheers!

C 9 – Cave Nebula

The Cave Nebula is 2,400 Light-years from earth in the constellation Cepheus.

Sh2-155 (also designated Caldwell 9) is a very faint diffuse nebula located 2,400 light-years away in the constellation Cepheus. It is widely known as the Cave Nebula.

The image consists of subs taken from the hills of Burke County, NC from Nov & Dec ’20 along with subs from Jan, May, June & July of ’21 – 220 subs totaling 19.5 hours of exposure.

Acquisition hardware: EQ6r Pro, WO Z73, ASI071MC Pro, Radian Quad Ultra, Polemaster, Senso Sesto 2, WO 50-200mm guidescope, ASI 120mm, and NUC.

Acquisition software: APT, PHD2, EQMOD, W10 pro.

Processed manually in Pixinsight.

Roughly 2,400 light-years away and lying in the plane of our Milky Way galaxy, the Cave Nebula is a diffuse emission nebula, within a larger nebula complex that includes a reflection nebula, and dark nebula. It is formed of gases that emit their own light. The bright arc that forms the mouth of the cave is an active birthplace for stars, known as an H II region, where hot clouds of atomic hydrogen have become ionized.

Having a magnitude of about 8 and a span of roughly 40 light-years, Caldwell 9 is a diffuse and low-contrast object, so it can still be difficult to find in the sky. Caldwell 9 is tantalizing to researchers because, according to radio and near-infrared studies of this nebula, the area is bursting with young, hot stars popping into existence.

The amazing wonders of nature.