Cocooned in dust.

[jgs001]

Wonderful Olly. Excellent capture and processing.

[Darth Takahashi]

Really jealous of this image and your skies, I'm still out on business in the UK and the weather is great, the sunsets have been brilliant.

A lovely image, the star colours are very nice and the dust lanes lead your eyes to the stunning Coccon, well done, the hours have paid off.

[Guest]

A couple of years I took a wide Cocoon in the Tak. It was a bit so-so which tempted me to get another three hours last night. ....................

When my equipment grows up I want to take pictures just like this! har har

Thanks for showing how this object should look Olly.

David

[stolenfeather]

Wow! This surely puts things into perspective doesn't it?

Isabelle

[MikeWilson]

You're very kind Mike, but try this one...

http://middlehillobservatory.co.uk/IMAGES/Full%20size%20pics/Cocoon%20neb-June-aug09-Ha-HaRGB.jpg

If I can get anywhere near this in the close up on which we're working in the TEC then I'll die happy! Don't hold your breath...

That one looks very good too, although for the cocoon the context is interesting to me. What is that dust lane all about and why does it extend from the nebula away from the frame? Is it an astigmatism or somehow physically connected?

I'm sure your TEC version will come up trumps too - 6.5 hours from a dark location... that's about a year and a half from much of the UK ;-) I don't think I've collected 6.5 hours of anything/everything in total yet.

All the best,

Mike

[ollypenrice]

That one looks very good too, although for the cocoon the context is interesting to me. What is that dust lane all about and why does it extend from the nebula away from the frame? Is it an astigmatism or somehow physically connected?

I'm sure your TEC version will come up trumps too - 6.5 hours from a dark location... that's about a year and a half from much of the UK ;-) I don't think I've collected 6.5 hours of anything/everything in total yet.

All the best,

Mike

I think what happens in these brown dust/blue reflection regions (see also the Iris, The Pleiades and lots of vdB obects) is that the dust is everywhere. Where it is illuminated by hot stars it looks brown and where it is really being lit by intense starlight you get the same blue scattering effect as we see in our daytime sky, more or less, making those bits look blue. So yes, there is a physical connection between the blues and browns and ionized star forming pink regions. As an imager I often feel the background sky away from the brown dust looks 'wrong' but I guess that's because un- illuminated dust is blackening it so it looks 'too dark.'

Ironically the lovely Ha we shot last night was already to be seen in the existing red and couldn't make itself seen above it!!

Olly

[johnh]

The dust in your image is certainly a grand sight and gives the lonely Cocoon excellent context.

John.