Auriga Widefield

Approximate Position:
RA: 05h 28m 51s (J2000)
Dec: 30degrees 54' 40" (J2000)

Description:
This is a widefield view (approximately 11 degrees x 11 degrees) of an interesting region in the constellation Auriga (The Charioteer), taken on December 29 and 30, 2018 using a Pentax 200mm lens and the U16M CCD camera. This is a very large field of view, with a diagonal spanning approximately 15 degrees, which would enclose about 30 full moons! The constellation Auriga is host to a wide swath of Ha emission nebulae visible during the winter in the Northern Hemisphere, including IC405 (Flaming Star Nebula) and IC410, as well as IC 417 and NGC1931 shown above in the upper left quadrant. More information about this region, including the origin of the hot O-type star AE Auriga that is responsible for the blue reflection component of IC405, may be found on APOD. One of the most interesting emission nebula in this field is Simeis 147, also referred to as the "Spaghetti Nebula" by some, located in the lower right portion of the field. The complex, intertangled filaments of this faint supernova remnant are fun to reveal during image processing. Several other interesting objects are present in the image above, including the bright, blue star Elnath (also known as Beta Tauri and Gamma Aurigae) and the famous open star clusters M36 and M37 (please use this link for a smaller version with labels).

More information about this region may be found at Rob Gendler's website for Simeis 147 and IC405.

Photographic Details:
Dates: Pentax widefield: December 29 and 30, 2018
Scope: Pentax 200mm lens
Autoguider: SBIG ST-402 with 60mm guidescope, focal length 227mm
Camera: Apogee U16M at -20C, with 7 position 50mm square filter wheel (Apogee FW50-7S)
Filters: Baader RGB and Ha filters, 50mm square
Exposures: Ha, 6 hours; R, 2 hours; G, 2 hours; B, 3 hours, all unbinned.
Post-processing: Calibrated, aligned, and stacked in Maxim, followed by DDP in ImagesPlus (IP). Further processing in Photoshop CS (16 bit format). I also used my older data from 2007, 2008, and 2012 to complement certain regions of this field of view.