OK, I've shot this before, but I needed a target after M27 set and before my next target came up. Here it is. This is the Bubble Nebula, or NGC 7635, in Cassiopeia. It is a strange and wonderful object. A very large, bright star is blasting the bubble out of a cloud of gas. The star sits in what appears to be the upper right of the bubble. Just below it is a knot of gas that the star is slowly blowing away with ultraviolet radiation. The head of the knot glows like a star because it absorbs so much energy. All the glowing gas you see here is ionized hydrogen and nitrogen, as the filter I used catches only those two. The gas is glowing from radiation emanating from the same star. It's such a dramatic scene!
Telescope: Astro-Tech AT111EDT and William Optics AFR-IV (eff. at f/5.6)
Camera and Exposure: SXVF-H9 (Ha-NII: 7x1200"), Alnitak Flat-man flats
Filter: Astronomik Ha-NII
Guiding: SX Lodestar and SX OAG
Mount: Takahashi NJP
Software: Nebulosity, Maxim DL, Photoshop CS3
Location: The Woodlands, TX
2 comments:
Very nice detail! I think I get a sense of the shape in 3-D.
Thanks, Rory. This is such an amazing field, one of those that keeps me coming back again and again to astronomy.
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