Two Cosmic Bubbles
June 8th, 2018
The Crescent nebula (upper right) is a bubble of ionized gas formed by a Wolf-Rayet (or WR) star. WR stars are huge short lived stars that lose mass as they age, many ending in spectacular supernovae. The gas surrounding the Crescent is part of a huge hydrogen rich area of the milky way around the constellation of Cygnus. If you look closely, the soap bubble lies in the bottom left corner of the image as a small faint circle. This planetary nebula is famously hard to capture and I really need more data in order to bring it out better.
I decided to revisit the crescent and did so with a different optical train and a years worth of experience with my camera (the first time I imaged the crescent it was my first light on my ASI 1600). I think I did a much better job of capturing the OIII shell this time.
Captured on: May 29th and 30th, 2018
AT6RC, 896mm @ F/5.9
ZWO ASI 1600mm-C
Skywatcher NEQ6 Pro
Hydrogen Alpha: ZWO 7nm Ha filter(1.25″), 120x120s, -10C, Gain 200, Offset 50
Oxygen III: ZWO 7nm OIII filter(1.25″), 120x120s, -10C, Gain 200, Offset 50
Total Acquisition of 8hrs
PS, DSS, PHD2, SGP, EQMOD
Thanks for looking!