2017 Feb. 18 ~ The Rosette Nebula in Monoceros

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Photographed at Torrance Barrens Dark Sky Preserve, Ontario, Canada (200 km by road north of Toronto)

* Temperature 0° C.

 

* Total exposure time: 6 minutes.

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Description:

 

I didn't have enough time before I had to pack up my gear and drive two hours back to my home in the city to make more than six subframes for this photo. I would have liked at least ten. So the resolution is not as good as I'd like it to be, but I think that it's not a bad image.

 

The Rosette Nebula, which lies about 5,000 light years from Earth, is located just to the east of the constellation Orion, and is in the centre of the (northern hemisphere) winter Milky Way. It can just barely be glimpsed in binoculars from a dark-sky location far away from city lights.

 

From Wikipedia:

"The Rosette Nebula (also known as Caldwell 49) is a large, spherical, H II region located near one end of a giant molecular cloud in the Monoceros region of the Milky Way Galaxy."

 

For a version of this photo WITH LABELS, click on your screen to the RIGHT of the photo, or click here:

www.flickr.com/photos/97587627@N06/32743250460

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Nikon D810a camera body on Teleview 101is apochromatic refracting telescope, mounted on Astrophysics 1100GTO equatorial mount.

 

Six stacked frames; each frame:

* 540 mm focal length

* ISO 3200; 60-second exposure at f/5.4; unguided

(with LENR - long exposure noise reduction)

 

Stacked in RegiStar;

Processed in Photoshop CS6 (brightness, contrast, levels, colour balance)

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Done