Lower's Nebula in Orion (Sh2-261)
Characteristics:
Magnitude: ?
Size: FOV of this image is about 1 degree.
Distance: ?
RA: 6h 09m 6.1s
Dec: 15 degrees 51' 34"
Description:
Lower's Nebula is an interesting and infrequently imaged region of
hydrogen alpha
emission located in the upper
portion of Orion,
near the boundary between Orion and Gemini. It is located south
of NGC 2174
and can be seen as the relatively bright patch of nebulosity just above
the middle of this widefield
view of the Orion region, taken by Peter Erdman. Although not
labeled in StarryNight Pro, I have indicated its approximate position here. On
the higher magnification view, notice the bright patch at the base of
this nebula. On close inspection, this region is characterized by
elephant trunk tendrils that are reminiscent of what might be seen in
M16, and which are most likely the site of new star
formation. This region would be a great target for those
with longer focal length scopes, although I was pleased with the amount
of detail that I was able to capture, especially at the base.
Photographic Details:
Date: February 23, 2005
Scope: Takahashi
Sky 90 at f4.5 with field flattener/focal reducer, on the G11 Losmandy
Mount.
Autoguider: SBIG STV with
e-finder.
Camera: SXV-H9
Filter: Astronomik
Ha filter (13 nm bandpass).
Exposures: 36 x 5' each, binned
1 x 1, 3 hours total.
Conditions: Temperature 23 degrees F; average
transparency; average seeing; intermittent mild breeze; strong
moonlight.
Post-processing: No dark, bias, or flat frames used. Auto aligned
in
MaximDL; Sigma combined using RC Sigma Reject plug in, followed by DDP
in ImagesPlus (IP). Subsequent
levels and curves adjustments in Photoshop CS (16 bit format).
Final sharpening using a combination of high pass filtering followed by
unsharp mask in PS.
Please
note: Graphics on this website
may not be reproduced without author permission.
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