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Finger Lakes Railway 2201 is a GE U23B originally blt. Mar. 1974 as Louisville and Nashville 2772. After passing to successors Seaboard System and CSXT it was sold to the Providence and Worcester and spent nearly two decades in New England before being sold to the FGLK in 2006. Dressed in Lehigh Valley Red Cornell Red paint it pays homage to the dominant railroad in the modern day FGLK's home town of Geneva and the small portion of LV main that the railroad operates.
But the trackage here is the ex New York Central 'Auburn Road' a secondary line that dates from 1838. Becoming part of the New York Central System in 1853 it was actually one of three parallel lines the NYC came to own between Syracuse and Rochester. It somehow survived to be passed to successors Penn Central and Conrail before finally being spun off to the newly created Finger Lakes in 1995. Today 76 miles of the Auburn Road from Solvay (just outside Syracuse) to Canandaigua survives under FGLK auspices and here on the east end of that route is where we find 2201. The one man RCO crewmember on the Solvay Switcher job SH2 is making a little smoke for me as he burbles along through a curve near MP 5 heading west light engine to switch out the Westrock warehouse located about three miles east of the yard.
Camillus, New York
Thursday October 28, 2021
This narrowband image portrayed in the Hubble Palette (SHO) required three narrowband filters to create. The first filter, SII, was inserted into the red channel, Ha filtered light in the green channel, and OIII filtered light was used for the blue channel. Equal weightings applied. A small amount of RGB data added to enhance the star colours.
I found it interesting too how this version of “The Running Chicken Nebula” behaved compared to my earlier attempts with a Bi-Colour on the same object. Similar processing yielded very different results. With the addition of the SII channel, the stars had much less colouring and appeared almost white initially. The features and details within both versions are different, and the colouring on the SHO version is a little wilder as expected.
IC2944 is a well known circumpolar object in the southern hemisphere. It can be located in the constellation of Centaurus and has an apparent visual magnitude of 4.5. You will find it nestled between the Southern Cross and Carina area. It’s a large structure spanning around 75 arcmin. Other names include The Running Chicken Nebula, RCW 62, and G42.
A fascinating feature would have to be the very dark areas in the nebula. These are known as Bok globules, small dark nebula containing dense dust and gas. Usually found in H II regions, they are areas of partially ionized interstellar atomic hydrogen. These globules are now known as Thackeray’s Globules, named after the South African astronomer David Thackeray.
You may notice a slight brightening on the right side of the photo. This glow is the halo of Lambda Centauri, a very bright star about 420 light-years from Earth. With an apparent visual magnitude of +3.13, this halo intrudes into this right side of the image.
Instruments:
• 10 Inch RCOS fl 9.1
• Astro Physics AP-900 Mount
• SBIG STL 11000m
• FLI Filter Wheel
• Baader Planetarium H-alpha 7nm Narrowband-Filter
• Baader Planetarium OIII 8.5nm Narrowband-Filter
• Baader Planetarium SII 8.0nm Narrowband-Filter
• Astrodon Red, Green, Blue Filters
Exposure Details:
• SII 20 X 1200
• Ha 12 X 1200
• OIII 22 X 1200
• Red 3 X 900
• Green 2 X 900
• Blue 2 X 900
Total Time: 19.5 hours
Thanks for looking
Terry
Omega Centauri, or NGC 5139, is a large globular cluster located within the constellation of Centaurus. This object was first identified as a non-stellar object by Edmond Halley in 1677. It is the largest globular cluster in our galaxy, and is located roughly 15,800 light years away, with a diameter 150 light-years. It is an incredibly bright object, containing approximately 10 million stars which allow it to be seen visually without optical aid.
With an apparent magnitude of 3.9, it can be imaged from under light polluted skies. This image was taken from the suburbs of Melbourne Australia, under 83-65 percent full moon.
Telescope: 10 inch RCOS fl 9.1 / 2306 mm
Camera: SBIG STL-11000m
Mount: Astro-Physics Mount AP-900
Imaging Dates: 24-29 of May 2016
Calibration Software: CCDStack
Processing Software: Photoshop 6
Filters Used: Astrodon LRGB
Terry Robison
Paranaguá means "big round sea" in the Tupi-Guarani language, a reference to the wide bay that affords the city optimal conditions to function as an important port. The village was originally founded somewhere around 1550 on the island of Cotinga, and later expanded onto the mainland.
It is Paraná's oldest city.
Paranaguá preserves many of the oldest colonial remnants in Paraná.
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This is truly an unusual planetary nebula. It presents a reasonable target size of about 10 arc-min in diameter. This compares very closely in size to the inner disk of the well-known Helix Nebula that spans 8X19 arc-min. However, SH2-313 is much older and further away. As planetary nebula age, they tend to lose their nice defined shape. Sharpless 2-313 has an extremely low surface brightness of just 26.2 mag/arc-sec2. This definitely adds to the challenge of capturing this planetary nebula as fairly long exposures are required to obtain enough signal to do this object justice. If you persist, a unique bow shock will be revealed near its core. For myself, the bow shock, and the processes responsible for its formation are definitely the highlight of this object.
At the core, what appears to be a very bright star is a binary star system responsible for creating the surrounding nebula. Spectroscopic measurements reveal the pair are rotating very quickly, almost enough to tear themselves apart. One of the stars is a white dwarf. The incredible forces generated by the rotation on the white dwarf has shed away its outer layers thousands of years ago. This has produced the surrounding planetary nebula we can see today. The glow is caused by the UV radiation of the white dwarf ionizing the expanding shell of material as it expands into space.
The bow shock is due to the motion of the nebula and its central star moving through the gas between the stars. It’s fairly rare to look at stellar objects and see features that suggest motion. I have imaged a few other planetary nebula that have features highlighting their movement through the interstellar medium. This can be represented with wave like structures, localised brightening of gaseous regions, or distortions. One of my favourite objects showing this phenomena is the Skull Nebula. astrob.in/365896/0/
Abell 35 is located in the constellation Hydra. To throw some perspective on this, the full moon is about 31 arc-min across, and SH2-313 is 10 arc-min across. Abell first identified this planetary nebula in 1966. It is possibly the largest PN known at 1.6 pc diameter, and is about 360 pc distant (Jacoby 1981). It is also the oldest PN known (Bohuski 1972).
Abell 35, Lotr 1 and Lotr 5 (Abell 35-like objects) are the only three PNe with binary nuclei known to contain a very hot UV-bright primary and chromospherically active. The mass transfer between their partners or common envelope interactions account for the morphological properties of some planetary nebula. As to how these binary systems form is unclear and presents a challenge to theories of binary star evolution. (A. A. GattiJ, E. DrewS, LumsdenT, MarshC, MoranP, Stetson 1997).
After staring at the screen for far too long, I think this is about as far as I can go with this data set. Data collection spanned three years from multiply locations, and different cameras, but the same telescope. There are a few little things in the image that are kind of cool. This is a very dim diffuse nebula, and galaxies can be clearly seen behind Abell 35. They shine through unimpeded, showing their colours even after they have passed through a nebula. A lot of what appears to be smudges throughout the frame are galaxies. That is so cool. I really wish I could determine just how far away some of these galaxies are. The two prominent parallel pillars, sometimes referred to as the pipes really add a dramatic element to the object. How were they formed? They definitely had a strong Ha, and OIII signal in the data collected.
Luminance, Red, Green, and Blue filtered light were used to create a traditional LRGB image. Additional structure was added with the inclusion of Ha, and OIII filters. The structures revealed in both the Ha and OIII data are incredibly different. This data was then combined with the LRGB image to add an additional layer of depth with interesting hues throughout the core of the resulting image.
Exposure Details:
•Lum 47X900
•Red 40X450
•Green 28X450
•Blue 32X450
•Ha 38X1800
•OIII 47X1800
Total time 66.75 hours
Instruments Used:
•10 Inch RCOS fl 9.1
•Astro Physics AP-900 Mount
•SBIG STL 11000m
•FLI Filter Wheel
•Astrodon Lum, Red, Green, Blue Filters
•Baader Planetarium H-alpha 7nm Narrowband-Filter
•Baader Planetarium OIII 8.5nm Narrowband-Filter
Software Used
•CCDStack (calibration, alignment, data rejection, stacking)
•Photoshop CS 6 (Image processing)
Thanks for looking
An RCO-equipped Warbonnet Dash 9 poses with three tank cars and a BN caboose at BNSF's Argentine Yard. This is actually one the bowl jobs here in the middle of trimming and doubling up outbound trains, but for the moment it looks like a neat, little train. The BNSF No. 706 is one of two Dash 9's with RCO gear assigned to the hump and bowl at Argentine Yard. The other is BNSF No. 723, which also still wears red and silver. 12/13/25.
Through all of the fog, grime, and air pollution of Gary, we've floated to the far east end of Kirk Yard - the old epicenter of the EJ&E, now the kind of epicenter of the CN around Chicago. Well, it's their only hump around Chicago, anyway. So what exactly's going on? One of two hump crews is about to finish their current set as the final few carloads ascend to the crest of the hump, and roll down to their respective classing bowls.
The hump always has what I'd consider to be great power working it - mostly junked SD38s and 40s fitted with RCO & other hump equipment - no exception to that trend here. Power for the set on the hill is rebuilt SD40u 6008, and behind that are two unrepainted EJ&E SD38-2s.
For distant observers, the second hump set is patiently waiting behind the structure to the right, to drill their load out to shove it over the hill as soon as the 6008 finishes and gets off the hump. Unfortunately, we ran out of light very soon after this was taken so nothing to show for it.
A KCS SD40-3, originally built in March of 1969 as an SD40 for the Quebec, North Shore & Labrador Railway, is used by "Run 2" this evening, a lead job working the west end of CPKC's Knoche Yard. They're shoving down the North Main past Olive St. here.
It's RCO-equipped, though a conventional job is using it now. 6/7/25.
SSRO- RCOS 16", Alta U9, PlaneWave Ascension 200HR, PixInsight 1.8, ACP, MaxIm DL, FocusMax
Object description at www.billionsandbillions.com
Orange GE's are always dominant among the multitude of locomotives at BNSF's Argentine DSF, though in this view, what's mostly seen are Dash 9's in the older Heritage I and Heritage II paint schemes.
Of greater interest are a pair of Montana Rail Link SD40-2XR's seen in the background, which were initially brought to Kansas City to be used as hump and bowl set mates for RCO jobs. They'll spend a couple more weeks here before moving west to New Mexico for new assignments in RCO service. 727/25.
I was a bit surprised to see that Northtown Yard hosted not just one, but several SD45-2 carbody units as switchers. I had honestly forgotten that BNSF still rostered a small fleet of these former 20-cylinder brutes, now classified as SD40-2Rs. Here #1571 is going about its work while LUGO/LUBO units stand silent in the background.
The daily transfer move between UP's 18th St. Yard and CPKC's Knoche Yard, operating as UP train YKS75R-17, rounds the curve on Main Track 1 of the UP KC Metro Sub as it approaches Broadway. An RCO-equipped "snoot" SD40N leads the way followed behind by another SD40N, originally a CNW SD40-2. 5/17/24.
CSX 8243, an RCO equipped hump unit and the former B&O 7601, leads G091 south at the south end of Ottawa on a mild fall afternoon.
This trio of galaxies is known as the Grus Triplet. They include NGC 7582, 7590, 7599, and are about 60 million light-years away. Whenever I finish processing an object, I love to look around to see if something interesting is in the field. My eye was drawn to the clusters of galaxies along the top of the frame. At first, they may appear as stars, but you can see groups of galaxies if you look closely. The semi-circular ring of galaxies near the top and slightly right of centre is so cool. It has kind of a golden colour. These are all galaxies. If you scan to the left near the top, you will find more clusters of galaxies. In fact, there are hundreds of galaxies in this frame with many over a billion light-years away.
Exploring all these wonderful gems would have to be one of the main reasons I enjoy photographing deep-sky objects. Researching these distant objects, their learning about their compositions s rewarding. The fact that we can image galaxies that far back in time with modest equipment is nothing short of incredible.
Exposure Details
Lum 49 X 900
Red 22 X 600
Green 19 X 600
Blue 18 X 600
Total Exposure: 22 Hours
Instruments
Telescope: 10" Ritchey-Chrétien RCOS
Camera: SBIG STL-11000 Mono
Mount: Astro-Physics AP-900
Focal Length: 2310.00 mm
Pixel size: 9.00 um
Resolution: 0.82 arcsec/pix
Thanks for looking...
A Montana Rail SD40-2XR languishes at the BNSF Argentine Yard DSF, as it has for close to a month and half now. It and a sister unit were plucked from home rails and brought here with the intentions of being used as hump and bowl set mates for RCO jobs, though they'll eventually be moved west and reassigned for RCO service in New Mexico.
The MRL No. 263 was originally built in April of 1966 as a straight SD40, beginning life as the CNW No. 891. Since coming to the MRL, it's been rebuilt and classified as an SD40-2XR.
Meanwhile, some power is being moved and readied for outbound trains, including a Paducah Rebuild GP10. This engine began life in April of 1953 for the Detroit, Toledo & Ironton as a GP7, the DTI No. 963. It was later sold to the ICG, who rebuilt it as a GP10 at Paducah, KY and numbered it as the 8237. It still carries that number to this day, though it's a couple more owners over last few decades. It spent a good part of its career near Paducah on the Paducah & Louisville, and it was later sold to Ag Processing, Inc. and moved up to St. Joseph, MO, where it's most recently lived. 8/2/25.
Another pair of former Santa Fe Warbonnet Dash 9's have arrived at Mid-America Car in Kansas City, MO for RCO installation. 6/25/23.
12.5" RCOS
Mono Camera Apogee Alta U16; LRGB, HSO
9 x 120s
Processed in Pixinsight, Photoshop and Lightroom
After the RCO climbed on board, the 1896 and BN friend started shoving away, out of the Autos, and into the main area of the intermodal facility. Meanwhile, a common-place CP eastbound crests the hill here at Midway and will soon be dabbling in some dynamic braking.
Another addition to the WSOR roster in recent years has come from the acquisition of five former Norfolk Southern GP59's from MEI. WAMX 5900, 5901 (both with built in RCO), 5904, 5906, and 5907 were brought on to replace four GP38s and one GP39-2 which have since been dispersed to other Watco properties.
From my personal experience operating these engines, I can see why only 36 of them were produced with NS as the only buyer. They really are odd ducks in the EMD GP series, and they make precise switching/spotting of cars rather difficult due to the irregular loading. One positive thing I will say is MEI did a fantastic job painting these engines into WSOR colors, and the really pop when photographed.
A very late westbound L867 is seen with an exceptionally long train for this section of the Reedsburg sub, just west of North Freedom, WI. WAMX 5907 and the 30+ ballast cars on the headend, had spent the majority of the day dumping rock between Merrimac and Devils Lake. After snagging the customer traffic from the pass in Baraboo, the local made a hail Mary west for the Co-op in Rock Springs where they would expire for hours and pick up the following morning.
October 23rd, 2024
FEC Downtown Job rounds the curve on CIS lead 1 near Vision Candles minutes after working Trujillo & Sons. GP38-2 #508 leads, an interesting one of a kind 38 with a K5LA, RCO functions, and a touched up nose with the Going Places herald updated. The unit also wears Going Places on the long hood.
This delicate looking galaxy is located in the Sculptor constellation. It is a very large barred spiral, almost 3 times larger than our own Milky Way. The very faint bluish spiral arms are estimated to be 300,000 light-years across.
I performed a slight crop on the image as I wanted to retain the feeling of distance from this beautiful galaxy some +70 million light-years away. At this distance, NGC 289 presents the angular dimensions of 5.10 X 3.6 arcmins, a visual magnitude of 11, with a surface brightness of 14.0 mag/arcmin2. This certainly adds to the challenge as the galaxy core small, and its arms are incredibly dim requiring long exposures to reveal them against the background. I really wanted to capture the faint arms and thought I would try 20 min exposures as an experiment in the Luminance channel. I don’t have a data set of 15 min exposures, so I can’t really tell if there is or would be a difference in the end result.
Instruments:
10 Inch fl 9.1 RCOS
Astro Physics AP-900 Mount
SBIG STL 11000m
FLI Filter Wheel
Astrodon Lum, Red, Green, Blue Filters
Baader Planetarium H-alpha 7nm Narrowband-Filter
Exposure Details:
Lum 41 X 1200
Red 21 X 500
Green 11 X 500
Blue 26 X 500
Ha 21 X 1800
Total Exposure: 32.2 Hours
A 60M that probably has pulled coal trains for Clay Boswell through Grand Forks and across this track back in the 00's is now relegated to working local jobs. On this day, it fills in for what is normally an RCO job serving the East Grand Forks American Crystal plant.
CSX Y294 takes a trip down the former Niagara Junction Railway with a pair of MP15s and a battle-hardened RCO crew to spot Superior Lubricants and pull a single car from Olin. Once electrified with 600 V overhead wire, the former NIAJ is now one of the last bastions of CSX MP15s on the system.
The usual RCO Dash 9s are slowly bringing the Union Job past the U of M campus. Seeing Warbonnet Dash 9s like this will never not be odd to me.
I think my biggest issue with this job is mainly that they never run with the ditch lights turned on. The dimmed headlights are a major pet peeve of mine.
This is my wide-field version of The Skull and Crossbones Nebula in narrowband using the Hubble Palette. NGC 2467 is an active star-forming region in the constellation Puppis
SII has been mapped to the red channel, Ha to the green channel, and OIII to the Blue channel to produce a false colour image.
Equipment Details:
•10 Inch RCOS fl 9.1
•Astro Physics AP-900 Mount
•SBIG STL 11000m
•FLI Filter Wheel
•Baader Planetarium H-alpha 7nm Narrowband-Filter
•Baader Planetarium OIII 8.5nm Narrowband-Filter
•Baader Planetarium SII 8.0nm Narrowband-Filter
Exposure Details
•Ha 26X1800
•SII 30X1800
•OIII 28X1800
Total Time: 42 hours
Looking down and to the South of bridge that go' over the center of the BNSF yard. Long live the Sd40-2's
A KCS SD40-2 is assigned to an RCO yard job switching the Work Lead at CPKC's Knoche Yard. For well over a decade, KCS SD40-2's have very uncommon around Kansas City, but recently, at least a couple RCO-equipped units have shown up in town for yard service. 5/11/24.
YWC61R 06 serves industries in town with a pair of geeps, 711, Y608. The remote operator is protecting a crossing as he shoves this boxcar to spot an industry, farther down on this lead.
Finishing up work at the glass plant in Spring Hill is BNSF train L-HLA6921-14I with a pair of RCO-equipped Warbonnet Dash 9's for power. They'll tie back onto the rest of their train on Main Track 1 of the BNSF Ft. Scott Sub here at CP 292 and then drag it down short distance to the south to work the kitty litter plant.
Both of these engines were installed with RCO equipment at Mid-America Car in Kansas City, MO a couple of months ago, and they'll spend some time on the R-HLA6911/L-HLA6921 rotation for at least a week before being sent to Albia, IA for more RCO upgrades. Several former ATSF 600 series Dash 9's have been cycled through Mid-America Car over the past couple of years fro RCO installation, and now a few 700 series units are receiving the same treatment. It's already strange seeing big GE's used on locals, but it's even stranger seeing them now used on remote yard jobs. 3/14/24.
B&LE 904 led what began as a Minntac loader, but redirected to U-Tac. Sun stayed out for a few nice shots, showing off the RCO antennas as they headed north along the Missabe Sub. Seen here cutting Midway road off they exit off the scale at Adolph.
An RCO job is busy switching cars at UP's Quindaro Yard at the Fairfax District.
They're using a GP15-1 and a GP38-2, both Ex-MP. GP15-1's are very scarce on the UP today, even though only a few years there were several based in KC and used frequently on yard jobs, locals and transfers. 3/28/21.
SSRO- RCOS 16", Alta U9, PlaneWave Ascension 200HR, PixInsight 1.8, ACP, MaxIm DL, FocusMax
Object description at www.billionsandbillions.com
This is one of the brightest globulars visible in the night sky and near the Galactic bulge region in the constellation Sagittarius. It has a few names, M22, Messier 22, and NGC 6656.
It has an apparent magnitude of 5.5, making it an interesting object visually. Through a modest instrument, hundreds of stars can be resolved. M22 is one of only four globulars of our galaxy known to contain a planetary nebula.
I tried something a little different with this object. I captured only Red, Green, and Blue filtered light. I aimed to reveal as much colour as possible in the core. Hopefully, it’s not too over the top :).
Exposure Details:
Red 24X600 Binned 1X1
Green 23X600 Binned 1X1
Blue 24X600 Binned 1X1
Total Exposure: 11.8 Hours
Instruments:
Telescope: 10" Ritchey-Chrétien RCOS
Camera: SBIG STL-11000 Mono
Mount: Astro-Physics AP-900
Focal Length: 2310.00 mm
Pixel size: 9.00 um
Resolution: 0.82 arcsec/pix
Thanks for looking
Small section of Soul Nebula IC1848.
This section is called IC 1871, and is 25 ly across.
Very interesting Dusty areas and cloud formations observed on either side of the gap.
False color SHO. Reprocessed in Photoshop
Imaged from Deep Sky West - Rowe New Mexico, using RCOS 14.5" Ritchey–Chrétien telescope f/9. 3340 mm focal length.
SHO 8 : 8 : 11.5 hours. 27.5 hours total exposure.
30 minute sub-exposures.
Transparency and Seeing very good to excellent.
October 2017 Processed in Pixinsight, PS, and Lightroom.
SBIG 16803 CCD,AO-X
Explore 12/15/17 # 445
This is NGC 45 located in the constellation of Cetus, approximately 22 million light years away. It is situated close to the celestial equator making it mostly visible from both hemispheres. It has a low surface brightness and lacks clearly defined spiral arms like our galaxy, The Milky Way.
It was a challenging image to process. That bright star has a massive halo around it, spreading into the NGC 45. A closer investigation will reveal many galaxies in the background. That’s the stuff I like, all those tiny galaxies highlighting the vastness of the cosmos.
Instruments:
Telescope: 10" Ritchey-Chrétien RCOS
Camera: SBIG STL-11000 Mono
Mount: Astro-Physics AP-900
Focal Length: 2310.00 mm
Pixel size: 9.00 um
Resolution: 0.82 arcsec/pix
Exposure Details:
Red 18X600
Green 21X600
Blue 23X600
Lum 54X900
Total Exposure: 23.8 hours
Thanks for looking
Thor’s Helmet is a popular target for astrophotographers. We all love to find shapes, and this cosmic cloud certainly ticks many boxes with the wing like appendages on the helmet, to the spooky eyes looking back from some 12000 light years away. The object spans about 30 light years across, and is believed to be in a brief pre-supernova stage of evolution. At its centre, an extremely hot Wolf-Rayet star is located, WR7. This incredible looking stellar object is located in the constellation Canis Major.
I think the object resembles a spooky alien protecting his collection of shiny stellar marbles.
The photo was created by combining both narrowband and RGB data. I wanted to retain the teal colour as so few stellar objects have this.
Exposure Details:
•Lum 65X900
•Red 40X450
•Green 16X450
•Blue 16X450
•Ha 32X1800
•OIII 25X1800
Total time 53.75 hours
Instruments Used:
•10 Inch RCOS fl 9.1
•Astro Physics AP-900 Mount
•SBIG STL 11000m
•FLI Filter Wheel
•Astrodon Lum, Red, Green, Blue Filters
•Baader Planetarium H-alpha 7nm Narrowband-Filter
•Baader Planetarium OIII 8.5nm Narrowband-Filter
Software Used
•CCDStack (calibration, alignment, data rejection, stacking)
•Photoshop CS 6 (Image processing)
Thanks for looking
An interesting trio of EMD's lead UP Train YKS87 16 through the St. Louis Avenue on the UP KC Metro Sub. Main Track 1. The leader is an SD38-2 rebuilt from a former Mo-Pac SD40-2, and its most recent career was part of an RCO hump set at Neff Yard.
With the recent change in motive power philosophy at Union Pacific, a number of these former hump engines have had plows applied, and turned loose on transfers, yard jobs, and locals out of Kansas City, operating on the main for the first time in years.
The trailing two engines are SD40N's, rebuilt from SD40-2's, and the 2014 is RCO equipped. Many of these are now in hump and trim service across the system, many of them mated to slugs built from the former SD38-2 fleet.
Unsure of how long these will stick around in their current state, I sure won't pass up the chance to shoot a non-dynamic brake MP 6 axle on the point of a train, as I hadn't witnessed such a thing in over a decade, and was pretty convinced that I never would again.
Locomotives: UPY 849, UP 1832, UP 2014
5-16-17
Kansas City, MO
The RCO job seen flat switching the west end of CP's Agincourt Yard at McCowan on a stupidly humid afternoon... The clean red dip on both units sure looked great in the sun, but I sure would have loved to see that original SOO paint on GP38-2 4451.
The Prawn Nebula is located in the Sagittarius Arm of the Milky Way, in the constellation Scorpius. Other names include both IC 4628, and Gum 56. From our vantage point, it is about 6,000 light-years away. IC 4628 is an extensive stellar nursery containing a large number of very hot, luminous, young stars created from the surrounding gases.
The nebula is about 250 light-years in diameter, with an apparent size of 1.5 degrees. For reference, this would cover an area three to four times the size of the moon. With my instrument, the full moon will fill my sensor. Unfortunately, I can’t fit the entire complex within this image.
Gum 56 is very faint and emits light at wavelengths not visible to our eyes. Two luminous giants and several young stars in this nebula emit an incredible amount of ultraviolet radiation ionising the hydrogen gas. The result, it glows. Within this invisibility, many things are concealed. Material ejected from violent supernova in the past provides new materials that allow for the formation of new stars. The cycle of stellar life and death continues as dust and gases collapse down, forming new stars.
The photo presented is a narrowband image created by combining filtered light from SII, Ha, and OIII filters. It allows us to reveal details of objects that we cannot see easily, or not at all. Often, the results can be very striking and dramatic. I tried to retain that pleasing gradient of yellow golds, through bands of teal, and hues of blue found in a traditional Hubble Palette image. I was pleased with the star colours ranging from blue to red, using only the narrowband filters. These colours appear very different from a traditional true colour image constructed with red, green, blue filtered light.
Instruments:
• 10 Inch RCOS fl 9.1
• Astro Physics AP-900 Mount
• SBIG STL 11000m
• FLI Filter Wheel
• Baader Planetarium H-alpha 7nm Narrowband-Filter
• Baader Planetarium OIII 8.5nm Narrowband-Filter
• Baader Planetarium SII 8.0nm Narrowband-Filter
Exposure Details:
• SII 22 X 1800
• Ha 22 X 1800
• OIII 24 X 1800
Total Exposure Time: 34.0 Hours