SH2-261 - Lower's Nebula

This colorful object is known as Lower's Nebula or SH2-261.  The nebula is a hydrogen alpha (Ha) region about 3,200 light-years away in Orion, specifically where the hand meets the club.  The Orion constellation has so many neat deep sky objects in addition to the most commonly imaged objects.  There is only one page of images of beautiful nebula currently on Astrobin, however, images are increasing quickly as more people discover it.  It is named after amateur astronomer Harold Lower and his son Charles who discovered this nebula in 1939 in their home of San Diego.

It was hard to find information on this object although Jens Zippel (https://www.astrobin.com/322218/0/), who took a great image of this a couple years ago, talked about the interesting location of the nebula.  Apparently it on the outermost edge of the Milkyway, on the border of the galactic region between the Orion and Perseus arm. 

One of my favorite parts is the lower portion where the gas seems to be concentrated most and it has the sharpest detail.  I cropped the image to remove the two largest stars as I tried to keep them in the image but they ended up being more of a nuisance than anything else.  I did not crop any further as I wanted to keep the faint nebulosity off the top and bottom of the main portion.

YouTube: https://youtu.be/RXhwTIy3R5Y

SH2-261 - Lower's Nebula
Home Monroe, CT
Date: 2-23-20, 2-29-20, 3-1-20
Camera: ZWO ASI1600MM-Pro
Telescope: Astro-Tech AT115EDT 115mm Refractor Telescope
Barlow: None
Focal Length: 805mm
f/7
Focal Reducer: Astro-Tech 0.8x Focal Reducer/Field Flattener for Refractor Telescopes
Mount: Orion Sirius
Filter Wheel: ZWO EFW 8 x 1.25"
Filter: ZWO Ha, R, G, B
Focuser: ZWO EAF
Autoguiding: ASI120 Mini attached to an Agena 50mm Guide Scope with Helical Focuser
Exposure: Ha 83 x 180, R 60 x 60s, G 60 x 60s, B 75 x 60s
Gain: 139
Offset 21
Temp: -4 C
Processing: APT, PixInsight, Photoshop.
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