Luis Alejandro Lezama
WitchHead
The Witch Head Nebula, also known by its official name, IC 2118, is a very faint reflection nebula in the constellation Eridanus. It was nicknamed the Witch Head because it looks like a profile of a wicked witch. The nebula is illuminated by the bright star Rigel in Orion.
It lies at a distance of 1,000 light years from Earth and has an apparent magnitude of 13. Its designation in the New General Catalogue is NGC 1909.
The Witch Head Nebula is an ancient supernova remnant or a gas cloud illuminated by the nearby blue supergiant Rigel, Beta Orionis, the brightest star in Orion constellation and the seventh brightest star in the sky. The nebula can be found to the upper right of the star, but it is not visible to the unaided eye.
Reflection nebulae reflect light from just one or several nearby stars. If the stars responsible for illuminating the dust clouds are hot enough, they ionize the gas, creating emission nebulae. This isn’t the case with IC 2118, as the nebula merely reflects Rigel‘s light.
IC 2118 is located 2.6 degrees to the west of Rigel. The star is approximately 860 light years distant from Earth and about 40 astronomical units away from the Witch Head Nebula. Rigel has an absolute magnitude of -7.92 and a luminosity about 120,000 times that of the Sun, which is how it is able to illuminate clouds lying at a distance 40 times that between the Earth and the Sun.
Radio observations of the nebula have revealed that parts of IC 2118 show significant carbon monoxide emission. This indicates that the nebula contains molecular clouds where star forming activity occurs.
.
Gear: Ioptron CEM25, ZWO ASI183 Color, ZWO ASI120mini, WO RedCat 51, ZWO 30mm, ZWO Asiair PRO
.
.
.
WitchHead
The Witch Head Nebula, also known by its official name, IC 2118, is a very faint reflection nebula in the constellation Eridanus. It was nicknamed the Witch Head because it looks like a profile of a wicked witch. The nebula is illuminated by the bright star Rigel in Orion.
It lies at a distance of 1,000 light years from Earth and has an apparent magnitude of 13. Its designation in the New General Catalogue is NGC 1909.
The Witch Head Nebula is an ancient supernova remnant or a gas cloud illuminated by the nearby blue supergiant Rigel, Beta Orionis, the brightest star in Orion constellation and the seventh brightest star in the sky. The nebula can be found to the upper right of the star, but it is not visible to the unaided eye.
Reflection nebulae reflect light from just one or several nearby stars. If the stars responsible for illuminating the dust clouds are hot enough, they ionize the gas, creating emission nebulae. This isn’t the case with IC 2118, as the nebula merely reflects Rigel‘s light.
IC 2118 is located 2.6 degrees to the west of Rigel. The star is approximately 860 light years distant from Earth and about 40 astronomical units away from the Witch Head Nebula. Rigel has an absolute magnitude of -7.92 and a luminosity about 120,000 times that of the Sun, which is how it is able to illuminate clouds lying at a distance 40 times that between the Earth and the Sun.
Radio observations of the nebula have revealed that parts of IC 2118 show significant carbon monoxide emission. This indicates that the nebula contains molecular clouds where star forming activity occurs.
.
Gear: Ioptron CEM25, ZWO ASI183 Color, ZWO ASI120mini, WO RedCat 51, ZWO 30mm, ZWO Asiair PRO
.
.
.