View allAll Photos Tagged ReflectionNebula
This is the bright reflection nebula complex that includes Messier 78 (largest blue-white nebula) and NGC 2071 above it. They are set in a region of dark clouds of interstellar dust, and framed by the red-magenta arc of the emission nebula known as Barnard's Loop, aka Sharpless 2-276.
The small reflection nebula at upper left on the edge of another dark cloud is van den Bergh 62. The large star cluster left of centre on the edge of the Loop is NGC 2112.
This is a stack of 30 x 4-minute exposures through the Astro-Tech AT90CFT refractor with its 0.8x Reducer for f/4.8, and with the filter-modified Canon R camera at ISO 1600. No filter was employed here.
Taken from home on November 13, 2023.
Autoguided with the MGEN III guider on the AP Mach 1 mount. Applications of luminosity masks from Lumenzia, a PhotoKemi Nebula Filter action, and a Detail Extractor filter from the Nik Collection 6 Color EFX (the latter two applied to a starless layer created with RC-Astro Star XTerminator) brought out the faint background nebulosity and dark nebulas in this dusty region of sky.
The 'W' of Cassiopeia has always been one of my favorite constellations - maybe because I could always spot it as a kid.
This extent contains the middle three stars of the 'W' - Ruchbah (blue, bottom), Navi (blue, upper left), and Shedar (yellow, upper right). The center star of the 'W', Navi, illuminates the Gamma Cassiopeiae Nebulae (IC 59 and IC 63) a combination of red emission and blue reflection nebulae. The red/pink emission nebula below Shedar is the Pacman Nebula (IC 11 or NGC 281). And to the right of Ruchbah is the Owl or E.T. Cluster (NGC 457); the owl or E.T. is upside down here.
Fujifilm X-T10, Samyang 135mm f/2.0 ED UMC @ f2.0, ISO 1600, 35 x 60 sec, tracking with iOptron SkyTracker Pro, stacking with DeepSkyStacker, editing with Astro Pixel Processor and GIMP, taken on Oct. 23, 2019 under Bortle 3/4 skies and thin cloud cover.
Thin cloud cover was present most of the time that I imaged and acted as a diffusion filter for the larger stars. I kind of like this effect that emphasizes big stars, especially for this extent where the nebulae are fairly small for a focal length of 135mm, although I'd always prefer clear skies to a natural diffusion filter. Even though my tracking was spot-on (good balance, polar alignment, and a charged SkyTracker), I wasn't able to use about half of my subs because of clouds.
This is a new version processed in Siril.
Original one (from same data) here.
Total exposure time: 60 mins
Telescope: Tele Vue-60 APO refractor
Mount: Vixen Super Polaris
This is an extremely difficult target for me as I live around 16 miles south of the UK's second largest airport London Gatwick, so battling light pollution from Gatwick and trying to bring out the faint dust is a huge challenge, but I like a challenge and I am extremely happy with the final result
RA: 21h07m03.75s
Dec: 67°15'14.40"
Constellation: Cepheus
Designation: NGC7023
Image Details: 201x150S at Gain 100
Darks: 101 Frames
Flats: 101 Frames
Bias: 101 Frames
Acquisition Dates: Oct. 23, 2020 , Nov. 15, 2020 , Nov. 18, 2020 , Nov. 19, 2020 , Dec. 12, 2020
Total Capture time: 8.4 Hours
Equipment Details:
Imaging Camera: ZWO ASI6200MC Pro 62mpx Full Frame OSC
Imaging Scope: SharpStar 15028HNT Hyperboloid Astrograph
Guide Camera: StarlightXpress Lodestar X2
Guide Scope: 365Astronomy 280mm Guide Scope
Mount: Sky-Watcher EQ8 Pro
Focuser: Primalucelab Sesto Senso V2
Filter: Optolong L-Pro 2"
Power and USB Control: Pegasus Astro USB Ultimate Hub Pro
Acquisition Software: Main Sequence Software. Sequence Generator Pro 3.2
Calibration and Stacking: Astro Pixel Processor
Processing Software: PixInsight 1.8.8 and EZ Processing Suite for Star Reduction
This image was first a test of the new QHY600 OSC camera using only 15mins of exposure using a Takahashi FSQ106 EDX3.
I was surprised by the result for only 15 minutes of exposure...
Main objects visible:
MESSIER 8, NGC 6523, NGC 6530 - LAGOON NEBULA AND CLUSTER
The Lagoon Nebula, Messier 8 (NGC 6523) is one of the finest star-forming regions in the sky, and is faintly visible to the naked eye. It is a giant glowing cloud of interstellar gas, divided by a dark lane of dust, containing a cluster of young stars (NGC 6530) that have formed from it.
The brightest parts of the Lagoon Nebula contain a feature known as the "Hourglass Nebula", discovered and named by John Herschel. This is in a region where vivid star formation is taking place, and its bright emission is caused by heavy excitation from very hot, young stars.
The nebula also contains a number of dark globules which represent collapsing clouds of protostellar material. The most prominent of these dark patches were catalogued by E. E. Barnard: B 88, a comet-shaped globule extended North-to-South in the nebula's eastern half; B 89, a smaller dark nebula near the cluster NGC 6530; and B 296, a long, narrow black patch at the nebula's south edge.
Properties and Cluster
The Lagoon Nebula lies in the heart of the galaxy's Sagittarius-Carina spiral arm, but its distance is a bit uncertain. Estimates range from 4,800 to 6,500 light years, with 5,200 quoted by many sources. A 2006 study found a distance of 4,100 light years, which would make its true size about 110 x 50 light years. The nebula probably has a depth comparable to its linear dimensions. The dark "Bok" globules of collapsing protostellar material have diameters of about 10,000 AU.
Hubble Space Telescope image of the "hourglass" structure at the center of M 8.
The western half of M 8 is primarily illuminated by the magnitude 5.97 star 9 Sagittarii, an extremely hot O5 star which radiates 44 times more high-energy ultraviolet than visual light. At visual wavelengths, 9 Sagittarii is 23,000 times brighter than our Sun! The illuminator of the "Hourglass" feature is the hot star Herschel 36 (mag 9.5, spectral class O7). In 2006, four Herbig-Haro objects were detected within the Hourglass, providing the first direct evidence of active star formation by accretion within it.
The hot O-type stars of the young open cluster NGC 6530 are fluorescing the eastern part of the nebula. As their light shows little reddening by interstellar matter, this cluster is probably situated just in front of the Lagoon Nebula. Its brightest star is a hot, mag 6.9 class O5 star, with an age around 2 million years. The cluster also contains one extremely hot, peculiar star of spectral type Of, with spectral lines of ionized Helium and Nitrogen.
MESSIER 20, NGC 6514 - TRIFID NEBULA
Messier 20 (NGC 6514) is also known as the Trifid Nebula. Named for its three-lobed appearance, it is one of the most famous objects in the sky. This object is an unusual combination of an open cluster of stars, an emission nebula, a reflection nebula, and a dark nebula that divides the emission nebula into three parts.
The Trifid is nearly the size of the full moon, and contains both reddish emission and bluish reflection nebulosity. The red emission nebula, and young star cluster near its center, is surrounded by a blue reflection nebula which is particularly conspicuous at the northern end. The emission nebula spans a diameter of 15' around the central star. The fainter reflection nebula to the north, surrounding a yellowish magnitude 7.5 star, appears about half this size. Both sections of the nebula are enveloped by a faint outer haze that reaches a diameter of 30', and is more extensive to the east.
The relatively high surface brightness of M 20 provides a good contrast to its three dark, radial dust lanes. The three sections into which the dark lanes divide the nebula are unequal in area; the northern is largest, and the SW the smallest. The dark lanes themselves are unequal in length and width: the NE lane is longest and most distinct; the west lane is broad and short; and the south lane is thin and short. The lanes do not converge directly, but lead to a circular, mottled central area. High power reveals a short and very thin lane headed straight north from the inner half of the west lane.
Properties and Evolution
M 20 is estimated to lie about 5,200 light years away, on the far side of the same complex of nebulosity that includes the Lagoon Nebula, M 8. The Trifid's exact distance is rather uncertain, with estimates ranging from 2,200 to 9,000 light years. At the value of 5,200 light years adopted here, the Trifid spans a diameter about 10 light years across.
M 20 is only about 300,000 years old, making it among the youngest emission nebulae known. All of its bright central stars are extremely hot, of spectral type O5 to O7. They illuminate a dense pillar of gas and dust, producing a bright rim on the side facing them. Star formation is no longer occurring in the immediate vicinity of the central star cluster, because its intense radiation has blown away the gas and dust from which new stars are made.
RA: 18h 04m 53.5s
DEC: -24° 29’ 02.0“
Location: Sagittarius
Distance: 4,100 ly
Magnitude: 6.0
Captured July 17 2020
Fiel Of view: 3d 53' 50.7" x 2d 36' 26.0"
Total acquisition time of 15 mins.
Technical Details
Data acquisition: Martin PUGH
Processing: Nicolas ROLLAND
Location: Yass, New South Whales, Australia
RGB: 1 x 900sec
Optics: FSQ106 EDX3 @F/D 5.0
Mount: Paramount ME II
CCD: QHY600 OSC
Pre Processing: CCDstack & Pixinsight
Post Processing: Photoshop CC
Objects visible in the plate solved version:
NGC 6553 -- Globular cluster
NGC 6554 -- Open Cluster
NGC 6559 -- Star-forming region
IC 4685 -- Emission/reflection nebulae
IC 1274 -- HII (ionized) region
NGC 6530 -- Open cluster
Text source : Livesky.com
Blue light from newly formed stars reflects on hydrogen gas from the Orion molecular cloud. This is 106 minutes of exposure time, taken with the Canon 6D at ISO 3200 through the scope at 1551mm, f/6.6.
IC 5076
Credit: Giuseppe Donatiello
IC 5076 is a beautiful and little known reflection nebula located at short distance from NGC 7000 (North America Nebula).
Probably it is precisely the bulky and popular neighbor that decrees the lack of attention.
We thus discover that the cloud is illuminated by the star HD 199478, a sixth magnitude class B blue supergiant (BlueSG). BlueSGs are very bright stars that are visible even millions of light years away. It is not said that the nebula is a legacy of its formation and, presumably, the two objects have just crossed along their orbits in the Milky Way, similar to the Pleiades crossing a molecular cloud.
This is the bright blue reflection nebula complex, IC 348, in Perseus, amid a region of dark and faintly glowing clouds of interstellar dust. The bright star above the nebulosity is Omicron Persei. The loose star cluster in the bright reflection nebulosity is also labeled IC 348. The dark nebulas in the area were catalogued by E.E. Barnard as B3 (at right), B4 (bottom) and B5 (top left).
This is a stack of 18 x 8-minute exposures (= 2h20m) through the Askar APO120 refractor at f/7 with the 1X Flattener, and with the filter-modified Canon R camera at ISO 1600. No filter was employed here.
Taken from home on November 10, 2023. High clouds moving in prevented more exposures. Autoguided with the MGEN III guider on the AP Mach 1 mount. Applications of luminosity masks from Lumenzia, a PhotoKemi Nebula Filter action, and a Detail Extractor filter from the Nik Collection 6 Color EFX (the latter two applied to a starless layer created with RC-Astro Star XTerminator) brought out the faint background nebulosity and dark nebulas in this dusty region of sky.
Fujifilm X-T10, Samyang 135mm f/2.0 ED UMC @ f2.0, ISO 1600, 42 x 60 sec, tracking with iOptron SkyTracker Pro, stacking with DeepSkyStacker, editing with Astro Pixel Processor and GIMP, taken just before astronomic dawn on Oct. 2, 2019 under Bortle 3/4 skies.
This frames the dusty starfield in Vulpecula the Fox that contains the famous Coathanger stellar asterism at bottom, also known as Brocchi's Cluster or Collinder 399. However, it is not a true star cluster made of gravitationally bound stars; it is a line-of-sight coincidence of stars that makes up a distinctive asterism. To the left of the Coathanger is an actual star cluster, the small NGC 6802.
The field also has some bluish haze from reflection nebulas, as well as distinct dark nebulas such as the curling forms at top. Oddly, they do not seem to carry any designation from the Barnard Catalogue. At the very bottom is the small reddish emission nebula Sharpless 2-82. The orange star at top is Anser, or Alpha Vulpeculae. Embedded in the lower of the two main dark nebulas at top is the small blue reflection nebula van den Burgh 126.
The field of view is about 8.2° by 5.5°, similar to binoculars.
Technical:
This is a stack of just 6 x 4-minute exposures with the Founder Optics Draco 62 astrograph with its f/3.9 Reducer, and the astro-modified Canon EOS R camera at ISO 800. No filter was employed here. On the Star Adventurer GTi mount autoguided with the MGEN3 autoguider. Taken at the Southern Alberta Star Party in the Cypress Hills in September 2024. Incoming clouds prevented more exposures.
The Pleides star formation illuminates the hydrogen gas cloud that surrounds it. Being new stars, they shine blue! The stars in the Pleides did not form from the dust cloud, but rather are just passing through it.
This is a stack of 15 exposures totalling 40 minutes exposure time, taken with a Canon 6D at ISO 3200 through a 500mm lens at f/4, all riding piggyback on the telescope, which was used for tracking. Stacked and processed with DPP and Photoshop Elements.
This photo of the Pleiades open star cluster was captured over a few nights last fall. Although this is considered a relatively easy target to capture, I wasn’t sure how this image would come out. To my surprise, and thanks to a bortle class 4 sky, I was able to capture the star cluster as well as the interstellar dust (grayish brown) around it.
In Japan, the Pleiades star cluster is known as Subaru and was chosen as the brand name of Subaru automobiles. If you look closely at the Subaru logo you can see 6 of the 7 bright stars within the reflection nebula (blue).
Clear skies and thanks for viewing!
About the Photo:
The Pleiades star cluster, also known as the Seven Sisters (Messier 45) can be found in the constellation of Taurus. The Pleiades is made up of more than 800 stars and is located about 410 light-years from Earth. Several of the bright stars that make up the cluster appear surrounded by intricate blue filaments of light. This nebulosity is the result of starlight scattering (reflecting) off minute grains of interstellar dust in the vicinity. This known as a reflection nebula, which is typically blue in color.
A light pollution filter was used to collect the data for this image. Light pollution filters selectively reduce the transmission of wavelengths of light produced by artificial lights including mercury vapor lamps, both high and low pressure sodium vapor lights and skyglow.
Equipment and Settings:
Camera: ZWO ASI294MC Pro
Gain: Unity
Telescope: WO Redcat 51 f/4.9
Guide Scope: ZWO 30mm f/4 Mini
Guide Camera: ZWO ASI290MM Mini
Tracker: iOptron Skyguider Pro
Filter: Optolong L-Pro
Exposures: 114 X 240sec
Total Integration Time: 7.6 hours
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Ah, it is finally done! This one took a few days. Here are the lovely Pleiades and their associated filaments and clumps of dust. To their south is a diffuse warm glow known as the zodiacal light. I am very impressed by how bright it is in this picture and the dynamic range with which it presents. In visible light, it's often barely discernible if you can even find skies dark enough to view it. It's bright enough in infrared to pose a bit of a nuisance to astronomers, but in this case I think it is wonderful.
If you are familiar with WISE, you know it's an infrared observatory, and this image may not look anything like what you might expect from it. WISE image releases typically look like this. While useful, they're not particularly pretty, and they might have even turned off a lot of people from infrared imagery. I've definitely seen a general lack of interest in infrared imagery and have even seen more than a few people express displeasure about JWST being an infrared telescope, fearing all the images will be... well, ugly.
Worry not, fellow humans! JWST will produce beautiful images and they need not be presented in weirdo colors. This particular image has only one special processing trick beyond what I normally do. After some careful consideration I decided to reverse the wavelength order. I nearly always put the shortest wavelength in the blue channel and the longest in the red. This time, I did the opposite. I was afraid that cognitive bias would prevent people from enjoying this image if it was a fiery red, given the extreme familiarity the astronomy community has with the Pleiades. Sometimes you've got to do something unconventional to get the result you want.
Processing notes: Thankfully, most of the processing work was aligning and matching up each of the frames to one another. This is fairly tedious work, but it's not nearly as bad as dealing with cosmic rays. There were a few annuluses to deal with near some of the brighter stars, but they only took about 15 minutes to be rid of. I did not saturate the colors or apply any sort of sharpening.
Red: W1 (3.4 μm)
Yellow-Green: W2 (4.6 μm)
Cyan: W3 (12 μm)
Blue: W4 (22 μm)
North is up.
NGC-1973, NGC-1975, NGC-1977 0n 10-26-2014.Canon 6D DSLR & 16inch Scope, ISO 3200, .32 minute exposure
NGC 6888 Crescent Nebula surrounded by Gamma Cygni nebulosity.
This is an HaRGB image (H-alpha frame blended into the red channel and added again as a luminance layer).
Details here:
Messier 42, the Great Orion Nebula in a quick LRGB thru a hole in clouds.
This is a rewarding, yet challenging target. So bright it burns thru at 5 minute subs, yet so faint you can't get the dark fuzzies with anything less than 30 minute sub-exposures.
3*5min RGB + 2*5min luminance.
The Pleiades star cluster, or Seven Sisters, aka Messier 45, in Taurus. The brightest part of the reflection nebula around the Pleiades at bottom is the Merope Nebula, IC 349. In this image, Iâve shot long exposures at low ISO speeds to record faint structure at low noise, to allow me to bring out the faint dusty nebulosity all around the region in processing.
This is a stack of 10 x 12 minute exposures with the filter-modified Canon 5D MkII at ISO 400 through the TMB 92mm apo refractor at f/4.4 with the Borg. 0.85x field flattener/reducer. Taken from New Mexico, Nov 17, 2014.
The star γ Cassiopeiae or Gamma Cassiopeiae or γ Cas (commonly known as Navi) with some of the faint nebulosity surrounding it. The nebulous regions are sometimes called the Ghost of Cassiopeia or the γ Cas Nebula. The nebula is very difficult to capture from a city and needs far more exposure than we gave it, but I was pleased that we managed to bring out a couple of the brighter regions. It is both a reflection and an emission nebula lit up by γ Cassiopeiae which is also slowly dispersing it. The regions we managed to capture are IC59 (top of the image) and IC63 (also called Sh2-185 or LBN623) to the left of γ Cassiopeiae.
γ Cas is an eruptive variable star roughly 550 light-years from Earth. It has reached a stage of its evolution where it is exhausting the supply of hydrogen in its core region and transforming into a giant star, leaving the main sequence after a mere 8 million years. It has 17 times the Sun's mass and is radiating as much energy as 34,000 Suns. Its rapid rotation of 300km/hr, (or 150 times more rapidly than our Sun) gives it a pronounced equatorial bulge. It's outer atmosphere has a temperature of 25,000 K causing it to glow with a blue-white hue.
09/08/2022
021 x 300-second exposures at Unity Gain (139) cooled to -10°C
055 x dark frames
040 x flat frames
100 x bias frames
Binning 1x1
Total integration time = 1 hour and 45 minutes
Captured with APT
Guided with PHD2
Processed in Nebulosity and Photoshop
Equipment:
Telescope: Sky-Watcher Explorer-150PDS
Mount: Skywatcher EQ5
Guide Scope: Orion 50mm Mini
Guiding Camera: Zwo ASI 120 MC and SVBONY SV105 with ZWO USBST4 guider adapter
Imaging Camera: Zwo ASI 1600MC Pro with anti-dew heater
Baader Mark-III MPCC Coma Corrector
Filter: Optolong L-Pro
M45 - The Pleiades is an open star cluster located around 444 light years away in the constellatin Taurus, the Bull. With an apparent visual magnitude of 1.6, this cluster is a prominent object in the Northern Hemisphere during the winter. Being among the nearest star clusters to us here on Earth, it is very easy to see with the naked eye in the night sky. This cluster contains middle-aged, hot, blue B-type stars that are extremely luminous and have formed over the last 100 million years. The blue reflection nebulosity associated with M45 is known to be from an unrelated dust cloud in the interstellar medium through which this cluster is actively passing. It is estimated that this cluster will stay together for about 250 million more years, then will disperse from the gravitational interactions with its galactic neighbors.
Galileo Galilei was the first astronomer to view the Pleiades through a telescope and discovered the cluster has many stars that are too dim to be seen with the naked eye. His sketch from March 0f 1610 shows 36 stars. Charles Messier measured the position of the cluster and included it in his catalogue published in 1771. In 1782, Edme-Sebastien Jeaurat drew a map showing 64 stars of the Pleiades from his 1779 observations, then published it in 1786.
Named for the Seven Sisters of Greek mythology, along with their parents, the nine brightest stars of the Pleiades are: Sterope, Merope, Electra, Maia, Taygeta, Celaeno, Alcyone, Atlas and Pleione, respectfully.
Other designations: Messier 45, Seven Sisters, Melotte 22, and Maia Nebula (lesser known)
Telescope: Stellarvue SV80S Apo @ f/6
Accessories: Stellarvue SFF3 flattener; Dew control by Dew Buster; Alnitak Flat-Man
Mount: Takahashi EM-200 Temma2
Camera: QSI683wsg-8 CCD @ -25C
Guiding: Starlight Xpress Lodestar via PHD
Filters: Astrodon E-Series Gen II LRGB filters
Exposure: 14 x 15min. binned 1x1 Luminance; 6 x 10min. binned 2x2 in each R, G, & B
Acquisition: ImagesPlus 5.0 Camera Control
Processing: PixInsight 1.8
Date(s): December 12 & 20, 2014
SQM reading (begin - end): N1:20.52 – 20.64; N2:20.63 – 20.68
Temperature (begin - end): N1:31.5ºF – 26.6ºF; N2:31.6ºF – 24.8ºF
Capture conditions: N1: transparency = Above Avg 4/5, seeing = Good 4/5; N2: transparency = Average 3/5, seeing = Average 3/5
Location: Portland, TN, USA
Rho Ophiuchi cloud complex
Credit: ESO/Dss2, Giuseppe Donatiello
RA: 16h 28m 06s Dec: –24° 32.5′
The Rho Ophiuchi cloud complex is a dark nebula of gas and dust that is located 1° south of the star ρ Ophiuchi. At an estimated distance of 131 ± 3 parsecs, this cloud is one of the closest star-forming regions to the Solar System. This cloud covers an angular area of 4.5° × 6.5° in the Sky.
Crop from here: flic.kr/p/2ogvT5V
The Orion Nebula, M42 and M43, with surrounding associated nebula and star clusters, such as the Running Man Nebula above (NGC 1975) and blue star cluster above it, NGC 1981.
This is one of the most often photographed but most challenging dee-sky objects to shoot, because of its huge range in brightess from the bright core to the outlying wisps of dim red nebulosity. Capturing it all in one frame requires a form of âhigh-dynamic-rangeâ techniques: shooting several different exposures and manually stacking and masking them in Photoshop.
I shot and processed this image for use as a demonstration and tutorial image for my Photoshop for Astronomy Workshops. This demonstrates the methods and result of masking several different exposures to retain details in the bright core while also bringing out the faintest outlying bits of nebulosity, compressing the dynamic range tremendously.
All processing was done with Adobe Camera Raw and Photoshop CC 2014. Total processing time from Raw to final was about 3 hours.
The image is made of:
- 10 x 6 minute exposures, Median combined in a registered stack, at ISO 1250. The median stacking reduced, but did not completely eliminate, the satellite trails from geosatatonary satellites that were in almost every frame.
- 5 x 1.5 minute exposures at ISO 1250 for the mid-level brightness areas, blended using Darken mode
- 5 x 30 second exposures at ISO 800 for the bright core, blended using Darken mode
- 5 x 30 second exposures at ISO 400 for the brightest part of the central core around the Trapezium stars, blended using Darken mode
Shorter exposure layers were stacked and masked using a luminance mask: created by Command Clicking on the RGB Channel to select just the highlights of that exposure then using that selection to create a mask to reveal the core area and hide the rest.
Additional top-level layers were added for enhancing detail overall:
- Luminosity layer created from the Red channel, and blended using Luninosity blend mode
- Sharpening layer created from a âstampedâ merge of all layers and with a High Pass filter applied, and blended using Overlay blend mode.
All adjustments and filters were applied through adjustment latyers and smart filters so every aspect of the image could be re-tweaked at will later. Masks were blurred using Feathering in the Mask Properties panel. No destructive filtering to images or masks was employed.
As a final step, some residual vertical banding and noise was smoothed out with an application of Nik Collection DFine noise reduction.
Diffraction spikes added to stars using Noel Carboniâs Astronomy Tools actions.
All frames were taken with a filter-modified Canon 5D MkII and through a TMB 92mm apo refractor at f/5.5 with a Hotech field flattener.
Taken from Silver City, New Mexico, January 22, 2015.
The Pleides are beautiful enough by themselves, but a long exposure brings out the faint reflection nebula that surrounds them. Apparently, the young stars that make up the Pleides did not form from this nebula, but are just passing through the dust cloud - a very happy accident!
This is 18 stacked exposures totalling 61.5 minutes total exposure time. Taken with the Canon 7D at ISO 2500 and the 500mm prime lens at f/4. I took a four exposures at f/8 to get a bit of a starburst effect on the stars.
The Trifid Nebula you never get sick of seeing.
A beautiful example of the combination of cold blue reflection nebula and hot pink emission nebula.
This version was specially processed and cropped for display at the Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2012 Science Festival in Croatia.
van den Bergh 152, also catalogued as Cederblad 201, is a faint reflection nebula that lies about 1,400 light years away in the constellation Cepheus. The dark area to the left of the blue reflection nebulosity of vdB152, is a Bok Globule catalogued as Barnard 175. This complex is also known as the Wolf's Cave.
Telescope: Stellarvue Raptor SVR105 Apo @ f/7
Accessories: Stellarvue SFF7-21 flattener; Dew control by Dew Buster; Alnitak Flat Man
Mount: Takahashi EM-200 Temma2
Camera: QSI683wsg-8 CCD @ -20C
Guiding: Starlight Xpress Lodestar via PHD
Filters: Astrodon E-Series Gen II LRGB filters
Exposure: Lum: 12 x 15min. binned 1x1 ; RGB: 10 x 5min. binned 2x2 each channel
Acquisition: ImagesPlus 5.0 Camera Control
Processing: PixInsight 1.8
Date(s): September 3 - 5 & 7 2015 & August 13, 2015
SQM reading (begin - end): N1:21.35 – 20.72; N2:20.25 – moon; N3:21.46 – 21.39; N4: 20.78 - 20.76
Temperature (begin - end): N1:70.7ºF – 68.0ºF; N2:72.1ºF – 65.7ºF; N3:66.9ºF – 66.6ºF; N4:73.0ºF – 72.0ºF
Capture conditions: TRANSPARENCY: N1 = Avg 3/5, N2 = Poor 2/5, N3 = Avg 3/5, N4 = Above Avg 4/5; SEEING: N1 = Above Avg 4/5, N2 = Above Avg 4/5, N3 = Avg 3/5, N4 = Avg 3/5
Location: Fall Creek Falls State Park, Pikeville, TN, USA & Portland, TN, USA
This is a reprocess of an image I took in 2011 through a 12" f/3.9 reflector telescope. It's a stack of 14 6-minute images (84 minutes total exposure) taken with a modified Canon EOS 350D at ISO 800. Not sure I see a "running man" -- well sort of -- but I do like the bright, colorful nebulosity nonetheless.
This reflection nebula lies just a stone's throw from the spectacular Orion nebula (M42, M43) in the constellation Orion.
This is a portion of the dust complex just north of Antares, in Scorpius. The blue reflection nebula at the left surrounds the star i Sco. This is a mosaic of 4 panels which consist of stacks of 90 s subframes. My intention is to expand upon this later. Here is the final version.
Subframes taken with a guided Celestron Edge HD 9.25" at f/2.3 with Hyperstar and an Atik 314L+ color CCD. Preprocessing in Nebulosity; processing and mosaic creation in PixInsight; final touches in PS CS 5.1.
Image center is near
RA 16h 26m
DEC -25.3°
This is the field near the bright star Gamma Cassiopeiae, or Navi, at left, with the reflection nebulas IC 63 (bottom) and IC 59, aka the Ghost of Cassiopeia, above the bright star. At lower right is the star cluster NGC 129, while at top centre is a loose cluster NGC 225, aka the Sailboat Cluster. It has a small patch of reflection nebulosity near it identified as van denBurgh 4 in the Tri-Atlas. It was not marked on other atlases. Many orange giant stars pervade the area.
The field of view is 4.7° by 3.1°.
This is a stack of 10 x 6-minute exposures with the Astro-Tech 90CFT refractor with the 0.8x Reducer for f/4.8 and the filter-modified Canon R at ISO 800. On the Astro-Physics 600E mount and autoguided with the MGENIII guider. No filter employed other than a UV/IR Cut filter.
The area around the head of Scorpius, including the bright star Antares at lower left of centre and the dark lanes leading to the star Rho Ophiuchi. The area is filled with colourful nebulosity, including yellow and blue reflection nebulas and magenta emission nebulas. To the right of Antares is the globular cluster Messier 4. The field is similar to what binoculars would take in.
I shot this the morning of May 5, 2014, from the Four Bar Cottages near the Arizona Sky Village, near Portal Arizona. This is a stack of 10 x 3 minute exposures at f/2.8 with the 135mm lens and Canon 5D Mark II (filter modified) at ISO 1600. The camera was tracking, but not guiding, on the iOptron SkyTracker. Stacked with Median combine to eliminate satellite trails.
The Cocoon Nebula (IC 5146). At this time of year it's difficult to get enough exposure on an object because the nights are so short. So, it makes sense to add fresh data to old data and increase the exposure time over years. For this image, just over three hours of data was supplemented with shots taken in 2018, resulting in four and a half hours of exposure (which is needed to bring out details on this object). The down side of this system is that the older data is invariably inferior to the newer stuff.
[From Wikipedia] IC 5146 (also Caldwell 19, Sh 2-125, Barnard 168, and the Cocoon Nebula) is a reflection/emission nebula and Caldwell object in the constellation Cygnus. The NGC description refers to IC 5146 as a cluster of 9.5 mag stars involved in a bright and dark nebula. The cluster is also known as Collinder 470. It shines at magnitude +10.0/+9.3/+7.2. It is located near the naked-eye star Pi Cygni, the open cluster NGC 7209 in Lacerta, and the bright open cluster M39. The cluster is about 4,000 ly away, and the central star that lights it formed about 100,000 years ago; the nebula is about 12 arcmins across, which is equivalent to a span of 15 light-years.
When viewing IC 5146, dark nebula Barnard 168 (B168) is an inseparable part of the experience, forming a dark lane that surrounds the cluster and projects westward forming the appearance of a trail behind the Cocoon.
IC 5146 is a stellar nursery where star-formation is ongoing. Observations by both the Spitzer Space Telescope and the Chandra X-ray Observatory have collectively identified hundreds of young stellar objects. Young stars are seen in both the emission nebula, where gas has been ionized by massive young stars, and in the infrared-dark molecular cloud that forms the "tail". The most-massive stars in the region is BD +46 3474, a star of class B1 that is an estimated 14±4 times the mass of the sun.
22/06/2018
017 x 300-second exposures at Unity Gain (139) cooled to -20°C
030 x dark frames
030 x flat frames
100 x bias frames
Binning 1x1
Integration time = 1 hour and 25 minutes
08/07/2022
037 x 300-second exposures at Unity Gain (139) cooled to -10°C
055 x dark frames
035 x flat frames
100 x bias frames
Binning 1x1
Integration time = 3 hours and 5 minutes
Total integration time = 4 hours and 30 minutes
Captured with APT
Guided with PHD2
Processed in Nebulosity and Photoshop
Equipment:
Telescope: Sky-Watcher Explorer-150PDS
Mount: Skywatcher EQ5
Guide Scope: Orion 50mm Mini
Guiding Camera: Zwo ASI 120 MC and SVBONY SV105 with ZWO USBST4 guider adapter
Imaging Camera: ZWO ASI1600MC Pro with anti-dew heater
Baader Mark-III MPCC Coma Corrector
Filter: Light Pollution filter and Optolong L-Pro
The Pleiades star cluster, aka Seven Sisters, or M45, in Taurus. A deep exposure showing the reflection nebulosity which fills the area. This is a stack of 5 x 14 minute exposures with the TMB 92mm apo refractor and Borg 0.85x flattener/reducer at f/4.8 and Canon 5D MkII at ISO 800. Taken from home Oct 9/10, 2013.
Lots of ducking and diving between cloud to get ten two min subs. Canon 60da canon 70-200mm f4 lens@200mm f4 iso 2000
Here's what the Canon reps printed out for me. For my Rho Ophiuchus image, I designed the border with text in PS CS3. Handed the thumb drive to the Canon rep and the PIXMA printer produced a beautiful print.
I'll get the print framed and hang it somewhere in the house or maybe in my office at work. That Canon PIXMA printer is sweet.
About the astronomy object:
Rho Ophiuchus region containing IC 4605, IC 4604, IC 4603, Antares, NGC 6144, M4 Globular Star Cluster, SH2-9, NGC 6121, and emission and reflection nebula structure
NASA's Hubble Space Telescope caught the eerie, wispy tendrils of a dark interstellar cloud being destroyed by the passage of one of the brightest stars in the Pleiades star cluster. Like a flashlight beam shining off the wall of a cave, the star is reflecting light off the surface of pitch-black clouds of cold gas laced with dust. These are called reflection nebulae.
The famous cluster is easily visible in the evening sky during the winter months as a small grouping of bright blue stars, named after the "Seven Sisters" of Greek mythology. Resembling a small dipper, this star cluster lies in the constellation Taurus at a distance of about 380 light-years from Earth. The unaided eye can discern about half a dozen bright stars in the cluster, but a small telescope will reveal that the Pleiades contains many hundreds of fainter stars.
In many cases, the nebulae surrounding star clusters represent material from which the stars have formed recently. However the Pleiades nebulosity is actually an independent cloud, drifting through the cluster at a relative speed of about 6.8 miles per second (11 kilometers per second).
In 1890, American astronomer E. E. Barnard, observing visually with the Lick Observatory 36-inch telescope in California, discovered an exceptionally bright nebulosity adjacent to the bright Pleiades star Merope. It is now cataloged as IC 349, or "Barnard's Merope Nebula." IC 349 is so bright because it lies extremely close to Merope — only about 3,500 times the separation of Earth from the Sun, or about 0.06 light-year — and thus is strongly illuminated by the star's light.
In this Hubble image, Merope itself is just outside the frame to the upper right. The colorful rays of light at the upper right, pointing back to the star, are an optical phenomenon produced within the telescope, and are not real. However, the remarkable parallel wisps extending from lower left to upper right are real features, revealed for the first time through Hubble's high-resolution imaging capability. Astronomers obtained these broadband observations with Hubble's Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2 on September 19, 1999.
Astronomers propose that, as the Merope Nebula approaches Merope, the strong starlight shining on the dust decelerates the dust particles. Physicists call this phenomenon "radiation pressure."
Smaller dust particles are slowed down more by the radiation pressure than the larger particles. Thus, as the cloud approaches the star, there is a sifting of particles by size, much like grain thrown in the air to separate wheat from chaff. The nearly straight lines pointing toward Merope are thus streams of larger particles, continuing on toward the star while the smaller decelerated particles are left behind at the lower left of the picture.
Over the next few thousand years, the nebula (if it survives the close passage without being completely destroyed) will move on past Merope, somewhat like a comet swinging past our Sun. This chance collision allows astronomers to study interstellar material under very rare conditions, and thus learn more about the structure of the dust lying between the stars.
For more information please visit: hubblesite.org/image/1009/news_release/2000-36
Credit: NASA and the Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA)
Acknowledgment: George Herbig and Theodore Simon (Institute for Astronomy, University of Hawaii)
Just weeks after NASA astronauts repaired the Hubble Space Telescope in December 1999, Hubble snapped this picture of NGC 1999, a nebula in the constellation Orion. Astronomers used Hubble's Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2 (WFPC2) to obtain the color image.
NGC 1999 is an example of a reflection nebula. Like fog around a street lamp, a reflection nebula shines only because the light from an embedded source illuminates its dust; the nebula does not emit any visible light of its own. NGC 1999 lies close to the famous Orion Nebula, about 1,500 light-years from Earth, in a region of our Milky Way Galaxy where new stars are being formed actively. The nebula is famous in astronomical history because the first Herbig-Haro object was discovered immediately adjacent to it (it lies just outside this Hubble image). Herbig-Haro objects are now known to be jets of gas ejected from very young stars.
The NGC 1999 nebula is illuminated by a bright, recently formed star, visible in the Hubble photo just to the left of center. This star is cataloged as V380 Orionis, and its white color is due to its high surface temperature of about 10,000 degrees Celsius (nearly twice that of our own Sun). Its mass is estimated to be 3.5 times that of the Sun. The star is so young that it is still surrounded by a cloud of material left over from its formation, seen as the NGC 1999 reflection nebula.
The WFPC2 image of NGC 1999 shows a remarkable jet-black cloud near its center, resembling a letter T tilted on its side, located just to the right and lower right of the bright star. This dark cloud was initially thought to be a "Bok globule," a cold cloud of gas, molecules, and cosmic dust that is so dense it blocks all of the light behind it. (Bok globules are named after the late astronomer Bart Bok.) However, infrared observations reveal that the dark region is more likely a hole in the nebula.
NGC 1999 was discovered some two centuries ago by Sir William Herschel and his sister Caroline, and was cataloged later in the 19th century as object 1999 in the New General Catalogue.
For more information please visit: hubblesite.org/image/952/news_release/2000-10
Credit: NASA and the Hubble Heritage Team (STScI)
This beautiful, blushing nebula is unique amongst its counterparts. While many of the nebulae visible in the night sky are emission nebulae — clouds of dust and gas that are hot enough to emit their own radiation and light — Caldwell 4, otherwise known as the Iris Nebula or NGC 7023, is a reflection nebula. This means that its color comes from the scattered light of its central star, which lies nestled in the abundant star fields of the constellation Cepheus. Located some 1,400 light-years away from Earth, the Iris Nebula’s glowing gaseous petals stretch roughly 6 light-years across. This nebula is of particular interest to scientists because of its colors. Reflection nebulae glow because they are made up of extremely tiny particles of solid matter, up to 10 or even 100 times smaller than dust particles on Earth. These particles diffuse the light around them, giving the nebula a second-hand glow that’s typically bluish (like our sky). While the Iris Nebula appears predominantly blue, it includes large filaments of deep red, indicating the presence of an unknown chemical compound.
OBJECT: NGC7023 Iris Nebula
Scope: SVX130T 933mm f/7
Camera: ASI2600MC
Mount: EQ6R
Filters: None
Moon Phase: 10% waxing
Lights: 246 of (300) @ 30” 100 gain -10deg
Darks: 30 @ 30” Library
Flats: 30 @ .85”
Dark Flats: 30 @ .85”
Surrounded by many various bright, large and colourful objects in the Great Ophiuchus Nebula and only one degree from Antares, the reflection nebula IC4605, 365 light years away in Scorpius is a beautiful and interesting object in it's own right.
Exposures: L,R,G,B = 5, 6.5, 6.5, 6.5 hours (24.5 hours total)
Telescope: GSO RC10 at f6 with Astrophysics 0.75x reducer.
Camera; Moravian G3-11000
The Rho Ophiuchi cloud complex is one of the closest star-forming regions to our solar system. It lies 460 light-years away in the constellation Ophiuchus and covers an angular area of 4.5° × 6.5°. Within this cloud is material that totals about 3,000 times the mass of the Sun.
Telescope: Pentax 6x7 SMC 150mm @f/5.6
Accessories: QSI-to-Pentax adapter; Dew control by Dew Buster; Alnitak Flat-Man
Mount: Takahashi EM-200 Temma2
Camera: QSI583wsg CCD @ -10.0C
Guiding: Starlight Xpress Lodestar via PHD
Filters: Astrodon Tru-balance E-Series Gen II LRGB filters
Exposure: 19 x 10min. binned 1x1 Luminance; 10 x 5min. binned 2x2 in each R, G, & B
Acquisition: ImagesPlus 5.0 Camera Control
Processing: PixInsight 1.8; Adobe PhotoShop CC
Date(s): June 30 & July 3, 2014
SQM reading (begin - end): N1:20.94 – 20.57; N2:20.19 – 21.01
Temperature (begin - end): N1:75.9ºF – 73.4ºF; N2:64.4ºF – 59.0ºF
Capture conditions: N1 - transparency: Avg 3/5; seeing: Avg 3/5; N2 - transparency: Above Avg 4/5; seeing: Above Avg 4/5
Location: Natchez Trace State Park, Pin Oak Lake RV Campground, Lexington/Wildersville, TN, USA
Hubble Proposal ID: 10536
NASA/ESA/Hubble Team/Raghvendra Sahai/Kevin M. Gill
Red: hst_10536_33_acs_wfc_f814w_drz
Green: (R+B)/2
Blue: hst_10536_33_acs_wfc_f606w_drz
Wide-field image of the three bright stars that form Orion's Belt. The emission & dark nebula surrounding the easternmost star (Alnitak) include The Flame Nebula (NGC 2024), IC 434 and the Horsehead Nebula (B33).
They form part of the large Orion Molecular Cloud Complex, an area of active star formation located approximately 1500 light years from Earth. The faint smudge in the top left corner of the image is the reflection nebula M78.
Exposure: 32 x 50s exposures @ ISO1600 equiv. Darks & bias/offset, no flats.
Camera: Canon EOS 60Da
Lens: EF 70-200mm 1:4 L USM @ f/5.6. 200mm (x1.6).
Filters: Astronomik CLS
Mount: Piggy-backed on 8" Meade LX10. Rough polar alignment.
Guiding: None
The Witch Head (IC 2118) is a reflection nebula in Eridanus, with light from the bright star Rigel illuminating the hydrogen cloud. It is very faint so it is tough to tease out from the background light, but it is a relatively large target, covering about 3 degrees (6 moon-widths).
This is a stack of 28 shots totalling about 75 mintues of exposure time, taken with the Canon 7D at ISO 1600 and a 500mm lens at f/4 riding piggyback on the scope, which was used for tracking with PHD Guiding. The images were aligned and stacked in Photoshop Elements and processed with Noel Carboni's Tools.
M45 - A nice, easy target that's fun to return to and looks better on each attempt.
[From Wikipedia] The Pleiades also known as The Seven Sisters, Messier 45 is an asterism and an open star cluster containing middle-aged, hot B-type stars in the north-west of the constellation Taurus. At a distance of about 444 light years, it is among the nearest star clusters to Earth. It is the nearest Messier object to Earth, and is the most obvious cluster to the naked eye in the night sky.
The cluster is dominated by hot blue luminous stars that have formed within the last 100 million years. Reflection nebulae around the brightest stars were once thought to be left over material from their formation, but are now considered likely to be an unrelated dust cloud in the interstellar medium through which the stars are currently passing. This dust cloud is estimated to be moving at a speed of approximately 18 km/s relative to the stars in the cluster.
Computer simulations have shown that the Pleiades were probably formed from a compact configuration that resembled the Orion Nebula. Astronomers estimate that the cluster will survive for about another 250 million years, after which it will disperse due to gravitational interactions with its galactic neighborhood.
Together with the open star cluster of the Hyades, the Pleiades form the Golden Gate of the Ecliptic.
17/10/2022
044 x 180-second exposures at Unity Gain (139) cooled to -10°C
015 x dark frames
045 x flat frames
100 x bias frames
Binning 1x1
Total integration time = 2 hours and 12 minutes
Captured with APT
Guided with PHD2
Processed in Nebulosity and Photoshop
Equipment:
Telescope: Sky-Watcher Explorer-150PDS
Mount: Skywatcher EQ5
Guide Scope: Orion 50mm Mini
Guiding Camera: Zwo ASI 120 MC and SVBONY SV105 with ZWO USBST4 guider adapter
Imaging Camera: Zwo ASI 1600MC Pro with anti-dew heater
Baader Mark-III MPCC Coma Corrector
Filter: Optolong L-Pro
The supernova remnant IC 443 in Gemini near the stars Mu (left) and Eta (right) Geminorum. Slight haze passing thru on some exposures added the star glows.
This is a stack of 10 x 6 minute exposures with the 92mm TMB apo refractor at f/4.4 with the Borg 0.85x field flattener/reducer and the filter-modified Canon 5D MkII at ISO 800. Star spikes added in Photoshop with Astronomy Tools actions.
M78 is a blue reflection nebula located in a dusty area of the Orion arm of our galaxy. Note how the dust lanes hide the stars located in the background. To image this, I had to struggle with a huge light pollution from the town of Aix. It affected the colour balance and I had to accumulate a lot of data.
Total exposure 7.7 hours in 45 subs of 10' with filters LRGB (bin2x2).
C11-HD telescope with reducer at F7
STXL 11002M camera on a G11 mount