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Cocoon Nebula (IC 5146)
Position:
RA (J2000): 21h 49m 13s
Dec (J2000):
47 degrees 09' 59"
Description:
The
Cocoon Nebula floats like an
island within a sea of dark clouds, which are very apparent in this
wide field view of this region. It is a star forming region
that contains three of the major types of nebulosities: emission,
reflection, and absorption.
These three types of gas clouds are responsible for the red, blue, and
dark regions shown in the above field of view. A more detailed
but narrow field of view can be seen in an image that I captured in
2008. The large central star within the
Cocoon has blown a hole in the nebula and is likely responsible for
exciting the surrounding hydrogen to emit in Ha light. Please check Rob
Gendler's site for more information about this object
Photographic Details:
Date: August 26, 27, 28, 2016
Scope: Takahashi
FSQ106 at f5 on the Takahashi NJP
Mount
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). The above
image is cropped from the original U16M field of view, to focus on the
most detailed portions of the dust clouds in this region.
Filters: Baader
Ha, and RGB filters
Exposures: Total
exposure 20 hours
Post-processing:
Calibrated, aligned and
stacked in Maxim, followed
by DDP
in ImagesPlus (IP). Further
processing in Photoshop CS (16
bit format)
Please
note: Graphics on this website
may not be reproduced without author permission.
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