NGC2237 - The Rosette Nebula in Monoceros

This is NGC2237, The Rosette Nebula in the constellation of Monoceros.

 

The Rosette Nebula 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. The open cluster NGC 2244 is closely associated with the nebulosity, the stars of the cluster having been formed from the nebula's matter.

 

The nebula is around 130 lightyears across and about 5,200 lightyears distant.

 

Imaged with my SkyWatcher ED72 scope and ZWO ASI183MM PRO cmos camera, through a Hydrogen Alpha filter.

 

16x300sec lights, with Darks and Flats. I will try and add colour in the coming week, weather permitting.

IC443 - Jellyfish Nebula in Gemini

This IC443, The Jellyfish Nebula in Gemini, imaged a couple of nights ago.

 

IC 443 (also known as Sharpless 248 (Sh2-248)) is a galactic supernova remnant in the constellation Gemini, roughly 5,000 lightyears from Earth, and is one of the best-studied cases of supernova remnants interacting with surrounding molecular clouds.

 

The remnant's age is still uncertain, although there is some agreement that the supernova happened between 3,000 and 30,000 years ago.

 

IC 443 is an extended source, having an angular diameter of 50 arcmin (by comparison, the full moon is 30 arcmin across). At the estimated distance of 5,000 lightyears from Earth, it corresponds to a physical size of roughly 70 light years across.

 

This image is comprised of 36x300sec exposures through a Hydrogen-Alpha filter, representing 3 hours of total exposure.

 

Stacked and processed in PixInsight, with final contrast adjustments in Photoshop.

 

If the weather behaves, I will try and get the Sulphur and Oxygen emissions and combine into a colour rendition.

 

 

PS.

I manage to get the additional Sii and Oiii data so I could add colour to my mono image of last week. As it turns out, there is very little Oiii emissions from this particular nebula so there is not much in the blue channel. The nebula is very strong in Ha and Sii so, in visible colours, it is a predominantly orangey-ochre colour. To lift the colours a bit, I combined the narrowband data with One Shot Colour data that I captured back in 2013, so I could show the stars in their natural colours.

 Anyway, all in all, just under 10hours of total integration time, plus Darks, Flats and Bias frames.

 

IC410 - The Tadpoles Nebula in Auriga

This is IC410, imaged a few nights ago.

 

IC410 is a dusty emission nebula located in the constellation of Auriga at about 12,000 lightyears from Earth. It is part of a larger star forming region that also contains the Flaming Star Nebula.

 

The gas structures in this image are lit by the radiation from the open star cluster NGC1893 that lies in the centre of the nebula. This star cluster is about 4 million years old, but in astronomical terms it is still very young, with hot, massive stars.

 

At the bottom-left of the star cluster, two more dense structures are visible. These are similar to the famous Pillar of Creation and they are composed of dust and gas leftover from the formation of the star cluster and are very likely to give birth to more stars in the future. As can be seen in the image, these structures point away from the centre of the nebula; this is because of the stellar winds and radiation pressure from the stars in NGC 1893.

 

Due to these structure's shape, the nebula is often referred to as the Tadpoles Nebula.

 

This image was created by adopting the Hubble false-colour palette for mapping narrowband emissions from Sulphur, Hydrogen Alpha and Oxygen atoms to the red, green and blue channels respectively. So, the cyan/blue colours are the Hydrogen Alpha , with the yellow/green colours representing the Sulphur and the pale blue representing the Oxygen.

 

Imaged over two nights, with just under 7 hours of total integration time.

36x5mins Ha, 20x5mins Sii, 24x5mins Oiii, plus Darks Flats and Bias frames. Stacked and processed in PixInsight, with final colour balancing in Photoshop.

Melotte 15

This is Melotte 15, an Open Cluster in the constellation of Cassiopeia, probably better known as "The Heart of the Heart"; it is the centre cluster of stars within The Heart Nebula, IC1805 (also known as Sharpless 2-190). Melotte 15 is about 7,500 light years away from Earth.

 

When photographed under visible wavelength, the nebula's intense red colour and its configuration are driven by the Hydrogen Alpha radiation emanating from a small group of stars near the nebula's centre. This open cluster of stars, known as Melotte 15, contains a few bright stars nearly 50 times the mass of our Sun, and many more dim stars that are only a fraction of our Sun's mass. The grouping is only about 1.5 million years old and its lifespan is expected to be as short as 3-6 million years.

 

This image was created by adopting the Hubble false-colour palette for mapping narrowband emissions from Sulphur, Hydrogen Alpha and Oxygen atoms to the red, green and blue channels respectively. So, the cyan/blue colours are the intense reds (Hydrogen Alpha) that you would normally see when photographed under visible wavelength, with the yellow/orange colours representing the Sulphur.

 

Imaged over two nights, with just over 6 hours of total integration time.

25x5mins Ha, 25x5mins Sii, 25x5mins Oiii, plus Darks Flats and Flat Darks. Stacked and processed in PixInsight, with final colour balancing in Photoshop.