I found some time to reprocess the Heart Nebula images I took earlier last month. The result is an image that pops a little more with additional subtle detail. I've also included an astrometry identification of image features and a zoom of the "heart of the Heart," the Melotte 15 cluster.
I posted a couple of images of the Soul Nebula earlier (NOTE: These posts were not copied to this blog). Here is a fully reprocessed image, with an astrometry image based on the Hydrogen Alpha channel (a monochrome image). The astrometry image shows a number of other objects associated with the nebula. The Soul is an emission nebula in a huge star-forming region. The stellar winds from young stars energize the nebula and make it glow. In the closeup image, (the heart of the Soul :) you can see dark nodules silhouetted against the nebula; these are Bok Globules and new stars are forming within them. Note also close to the darkest and most prominent globule, trunk-like and pillar-like structures. These are also the birth places of stars. The red coloring of the nebula comes from hydrogen ionized by the young, blue-white stars in the nebula. The faint bluish coloring comes from reflected light.
The wide field of the RASA scope can produce some spectacular results, as in this image of the Lobster Claw Nebula with several other objects (including the Bubble Nebula) visible. The Bubble is an emission nebula. The "soap bubble" is caused by stellar winds from a massive, hot, young star in its center. The image below it is a "plate solved" image which labels all the prominent objects. (Note: I made some edits to this image using a new tool, which greatly improved it.).
The Cave Nebula (Sh2-155), is a faint nebula in the Constellation of Cepheus. From Wikipedia: Sh2-155 lies at the edge of the Cepheus B cloud (part of the Cepheus molecular cloud), and is ionized by young stars from the Cep OB3 association. It has been suggested that radiation from the hot O-type star HD 217086 is compressing the region, triggering the formation of a new generation of stars.[9] A study of the region's young stellar objects by the Chandra X-ray Observatory and Spitzer Space Telescope shows a progression of stellar ages in front of the cloud, supporting the hypothesis of triggered star-formation. I've also included a "close up" image of the nebula that shows a little more fine detail.
The Wizard Nebula (aka Harry Potter and the Golden Snitch) is an open cluster of young stars and associated nebulosity. It was discovered by Caroline Herschel, sister of the famous astronomer, William Herschel. At the center of the cluster are two massive O-type stars. These stars are ionizing the region and driving star formation in the nebula. This image is a combination of 80 x 70s images, processed more heavily and cropped than the last image. This process increased noise a little, but brought out significant detail in the nebulosity. Taken with the RASA and NBZ filter.
The Lion Nebula is an emission nebula in the constellation Cephus. Two massive Wolf-Rayet stars energize the cloud. Can you see the Lion? Hint: it's a lion's head. The top is pointed to the upper right corner and his jaw and snout to the lower left (it looks more like a bear's head to me). The image was captured with a RASA 8 scope and a Mallincam DS10C camera. This image was captured using an NBZ filter, which is much more attuned to fast optics like those in the RASA.
Continuing this series of images captured with narrowband filters, here is the Elephant's Trunk Nebula. This is part of a much larger complex of interstellar gas and dust. The nebula appears to be a site of star formation as a number of very young stars have been detected in it. The bright rim of the trunk is a region ionized by a massive star, HD 206267, which is hidden in the cloud. This image was captured at the CSO on September 14, 2021.
The Horsehead Nebula never gets old. This image is a seven hour integration taken with the S50. I procesed it in Siril with RC Astro tools a...
