Crescent Nebula, WR 134, & Many More!

The main object in this view is the Crescent Nebula, on the left (also known as NGC 6888, Caldwell 27, Sharpless 105), which is an emission nebula located approximately 5000 light-years away in Cygnus. Current structure is a result of a collision of faster moving stellar wind from Wolf-Rayet Star WR 136 with slower moving wind from when the star ejected its outer layers when it became a red giant 250,000 to 500,000 years ago. The resulting collision has ionized the gas causing it to glow. The second most prominent object is Wolf-Rayet star WR 134, on the right, located approximately 6000 ly away, which like the NGC 6888 is also blowing off its outer layers at very high speeds. The blue arc was produced when the outer layer collided with the gas that was already surrounding the star. 

Both the Crescent Nebula and WR 134 show a strong Oxygen III signal (blue color) in addition to the more common Hydrogen Alpha (red color). I used the IDAS NBZ dual band filter and was very pleased to pick up so much of the fainter less abundant Oxygen. To the lower left south of the Crescent is a recently discovered (2007) planetary nebula named the Soap Bubble Nebula (a.k.a PN G075.5+01.7). It is very faint and found only in the OIII band. Below the Soap Bubble another emission nebula LBN 209 that contains an oxygen rich blue region. Just scrolling around in that same area further to the left I discovered a tiny PN that does not show up on the Stellarium or Astrobin Plate Solver. I was about to give up on this nebula but then I thought of all the work Gary Imm does especially with his new compendium and searched on Simbad, turns out this PN is designated as PNA66 69 (RA 20 19 58.3 / DEC +38 24 02.16). Although it is very small it looks surprisingly well defined in my widefield setup, might be worth a look with more focal length. 

If I had to do this over I would have framed it a bit lower to fully incorporate LBN 195 & SH2-104 on the center bottom. I also like the swirling ribbon-like structure of the hydrogen gas in this entire region. I did end up tossing about four hours of data but in order to image at all in New England you have to collect data when you can even if it is not ideal in the hopes that some usable data will be obtained.

 

Crescent Nebula, WR 134, & Many More!
Dates: 8-22-23, 8-23, 8-31, 9-1, 9-3, 9-4, 9-6, 9-14, 9-19, 9-20
Camera: ZWO ASI2600MC Pro
Telescope: Askar FRA300 Pro
Barlow: None
Focal Length: 300mm
F/5
Focal Reducer: None
Mount: Orion Atlas Pro
Filter Adaptor: ZWO Filter Drawer
Filter: IDAS NBZ, Camera UV-IR
Focuser: ZWO EAF
Autoguiding: ASI120 Mini attached to a ZWO Mini guidescope
Exposure: UV-IR 53 x 90, NBZ 229 x 300
Gain: 100
Offset 0
Temp: 0 C
Processing: Asiair app, PixInsight, Photoshop, BlurXT, NoiseXT, StarX, Bill's Color Masks, Bill's Star Reduction, GraXpert

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LBN 576 (Abell 85) - Supernova Remnant

LBN 576, also known as Abell 85 (or CTB 1), is a remnant supernova event that occurred 10,000 years ago towards the constellation of Cassiopeia. It was formed when a star used up all of its elemental fuel and exploded. The glowing shell of gas nicknamed the Popped Balloon or Medulla Nebula glows in visible light as a result of its collision with interstellar gas.

This is a first for me on this object and I am quite happy with the results. It is very faint which is most likely why it is not imaged as much as the nearby Heart and Soul Nebula, in fact there was barely anything in any of the subframes. Processing was interesting as I used the new AI version GraXpert Gradient Extractor (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AzDDafSrZ7k&t=0s) which was incredibly simple. I have been using just BXT for star reduction but this time I experimented with the settings to keep better star shapes but it did not reduce the stars as much, so I did addition reduction with Bill's star reduction and with using curves. The hard part in processing was trying to keep as much Ha detail while incorporating the OIII data. After doing a normal HOO blend I added the Ha as luminosity because of its great detail but it drowned out the OIII. After doing several additional OIII bends, the detail and OIII color were preserved.

Dates: 8-22-23, 8-23, 8-27, 8-31, 9-1, 9-3, 9-4, 9-6, 9-12, 9-14, 9-16

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LBN 576 (Abell 85) - Supernova Remnant
Dates: 8-22-23, 8-23, 8-27, 8-31, 9-1, 9-3, 9-4, 9-6, 9-12, 9-14, 9-16
Camera: ZWO ASI1600MM-Pro
Telescope: Astro-Tech AT115EDT 115mm Refractor Telescope
Barlow: None
Focal Length: 805mm (644mm w/ FR)
f/7
Focal Reducer: 0.8x AstroTech Field Flatterner/Focal Reducer
Mount: Orion Sirius
Filter Wheel: ZWO
EFW 8 x 1.25"
Filter: Antlia Ha, OIII; ZWO L, R, G, B
Focuser: ZWO EAF
Autoguiding: ASI120 Mini attached to an Agena 50mm Guide Scope/ZWO 60mm Guidescope
Exposure: Ha 107 x 300, OIII 97 x 300, R 39 x 90, G 42 x 90, B 45 x 90
Gain: 139
Offset 20
Sensor Temp: 0 C
Processing: NINA, PixInsight, Photoshop, BlurXTerminator, StarXTerminator, NoiseXTerminator, Grapert, Bill Blanchan Star Reduction.

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Askar FRA300 Pro Review & Comparison to Canon 200mm! #astro #astrophotog...