California from Illinois
- www.kevin-palmer.com - There are a lot of astronomical objects which have names that don't seem to fit. But this object strongly resembles its name: the California Nebula. It is located in the constellation Perseus and is very difficult to see even with a telescope because of its low surface brightness. The nebula is made up of hydrogen gas that glows because of the radiation from the nearby star Menkib. Also known as NGC 1499, this nebula covers roughly as much sky as 5 full moons. On the right side of the image dark nebula can be seen. It is made up of insterstellar clouds of dust so thick that it obscures the light of stars behind it.
This was shot with a Takumar 135mm f2.5 lens at f4, iso 1600. It is a stack of of 20 2.5 minute frames, plus 8 darks, and 8 bias frames. An iOptron Skytracker was used to track the stars.
California from Illinois
- www.kevin-palmer.com - There are a lot of astronomical objects which have names that don't seem to fit. But this object strongly resembles its name: the California Nebula. It is located in the constellation Perseus and is very difficult to see even with a telescope because of its low surface brightness. The nebula is made up of hydrogen gas that glows because of the radiation from the nearby star Menkib. Also known as NGC 1499, this nebula covers roughly as much sky as 5 full moons. On the right side of the image dark nebula can be seen. It is made up of insterstellar clouds of dust so thick that it obscures the light of stars behind it.
This was shot with a Takumar 135mm f2.5 lens at f4, iso 1600. It is a stack of of 20 2.5 minute frames, plus 8 darks, and 8 bias frames. An iOptron Skytracker was used to track the stars.