IC443 - Jellyfish Nebula (2025)

This is my latest image of IC 443, a.k.a. SH2-248, commonly called the Jellyfish nebula for its similar appearance to the marine sea creature. It is a giant supernova remnant (SNR) located approximately 5000 light-years from Earth in the constellation Gemini. The exact age is uncertain, however, it is believed that the supernova event that produced what we see now occurred some 3,000 to 30,000 years ago. Recent research from the Chandra X-ray observatory indicates that the explosion that formed the nebula also created a neutron star or pulsar and further suggest the age is likely tens of thousands of years old making the 30,000 year old age more likely.

I really wanted to show the explosion of nebulosity emanating from the left side of the IC443. That portion has a lot of depth especially on the lower left area where there are also some dark nebulae such as LDN 1568. The upper middle area contains a blue oxygen rich region surrounding the star 12 Gemini with a reflection nebula, IC 444, just above that. The small pink gaseous object is on the left edge of the nebula is a small Planetary Nebula, HoCr 1.

I spent a lot of time doing star reduction as it sits in a heavy starfield, but I have a hard time with this because I love stars and typically do not do much reduction. I am still not sure and think I may have over done it but I know others might say I did not go far enough.


High Resolution:
https://www.astrobin.com/9mv1ej/?nc=collection&nce=712

Dates: 1-27-25, 1-29, 2-1, 2-4, 2-17, 2-21, 2-25, 3-1, 3-2, 3-3, 3-4

IC443 - Jellyfish Nebula (2025)
Dates: 1-27-25, 1-29, 2-1, 2-4, 2-17, 2-21, 2-25, 3-1, 3-2, 3-3, 3-4
Camera: ZWO ASI2600MC Pro
Telescope: Askar FRA300 Pro
Barlow: None
Focal Length: 300mm
F/5
Focal Reducer: None
Mount: ZWO AM3
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 58 x 90 (1h 27'), NBZ 366 x 300 (30h 30'), Total (31h 57')
Gain: 100
Offset 0
Temp: -20 C
Processing: Asiair app, PixInsight, Photoshop, BlurXT, NoiseXT, StarX, Bill's Color Masks, Bill's Star Reduction, Bill's Stretching, GraXpert, Topaz Denoise

https://www.instagram.com/astroquest1/
http://astroquest1.blogspot.com/
https://www.astrobin.com/users/kurtzepp/collections/
http://youtube.com/AstroQuest1