IC410 The Tadpoles.

As I may have mentioned before on my facebook page and even on here too the last 5 plus weeks of weather have been truly awful. However, 2 nights from Friday last week have been cold and clear but somewhat spoilt by the approaching full moon. So the filter wheel has rotated to the HA filter and the start of 2 projects IC410 & IC405 are born.

IC410 is a dusty emission nebula located in the constellation of Auriga at about 12.000 light years from Earth. It is part of a larger star forming region that also contains the Flaming Star Nebula (IC405). The gas structures in this picture are lit by the radiation from the open star cluster Ngc1893 that lies in the center 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. Just right of the star cluster two more dense structures are visible. Affectionately known as The Tadpoles these two structures are approximately 10 light years long these are similar to the famous Pillars 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 center of the nebula. This is because of the stellar winds and radiation pressure from the stars in NGC 1893. The really do look like they are trying to get back to the centre.

25x 5 minute Ha subframes.     Tadpoles crop     Looking a little closer they really do look like tadpoles. Lets hope for a few more hours of data to complete a Hubble Palette image. Watch this space: Image Details Total Exposure:  2 Hours, 5 Minutes ( 25 Frames) x 5 Mins Ha (10/12/21) Image Acquisition: ZWO ASIair Pro Camera Settings:  ZWO ASI2600mm pro Gain 100, 0°C Accessories: ZWO 7 position Filter wheel                Optolong narrowand filters                 ZWO broadband filters                ZWO EAF Calibration Frames: No Calibration Stacking and Calibration: DeepSkyStacker Processing: Adobe Photoshop 2020,  Size: 2.26 x 1.38 deg  Pixel Scale: 1.41 arcsec/pixel

Lobster Claw Nebula

This hobby can be so frustrating, it has been weeks since I have had the observatory open. In fact it was the 28th October since the dome shutter was rolled back for some photon capture.

My intended target was Sh2-157 The Lobster Claw Nebula, where my aim was to complete my longest imaging capture 24 hours total integration time using Narrowband filters. Narrowband filters are tuned to specific wavelengths of light emitted by Hydrogen, Sulphur & Oxygen and aiming for 4-10-10 hours respectively to create a Hubble palette colour image. One dismal failure later in respect to the weather that is, has left me with what was the initial capture of 1hr of Ha and 1.5 hours of Oiii and just 36 mins of S2 on the night of the 28th.

Patiently waiting now for weeks to further and complete the project. With more rubbish weather forecast over the next week I thought I would have a quick process to see what I have. I am not disappointed with the limited data captured and I guess It will have to wait now as there are winter targets I want to image and of course Comet 2021 A1 Leonard has brightened to becoming a serious contender for comet of the year. Agggggggggggggghhhhhhhhhhhhhh so frustrating.

Photo Details

• Total Exposure: 3 Hours, 12 Minutes (64 Frames) 20x 3Mins Ha 32x 3 mins Oiii 12x 3 mins Sii
• Image Acquisition: ZWO ASIair Pro
• Camera Settings: Gain 100 -10°C
• Calibration Frames: No Calibration
• Stacking and Calibration: DeepSkyStacker
• Processing: Adobe Photoshop 2020, Starnet ++ 
• Size: 2.26 x 1.38 deg cropped to approx 60%
• Pixel Scale: 1.41 arcsec/pixel

Additional

Guiding numbers were incredible for the session.