Sh2-261 Lower's nebula

[Jedi2014]

Hello,

Sh2-261 (or Lower's Nebula) is a H-II region on the outermost edge of our Milkyway, on the border of the galactic region between the Orion and Perseus arm. Although it is located in the northern hemisphere, it can be observed from all populated areas of the earth. In addition to the prominent objects in Orion such as M42, the horse's head or the flame nebula, Lower's nebula is rarely shown. Therefore it is not surprising that this object was first discovered in a photo by Harold Lower and his son Charles in 1939. The picture was taken with a self-made 8-inch smith camera.

The nebula is about 3,200 light-years away from us, has a size of about 13.1 parsec and shines with an apparent surface brightness of about 10 mag. Above the bright star HD 41997 in the center of Sh2-261 a small reflection nebula is visible.
For the exposure, I scraped together all the cloud gaps during november to reach almost 7 hours. What a cramp!

 

More: http://www.spaceimages.de/en/astrophotos/nebula/sh2-261
or https://www.astrobin.com/322218/0/

 

Greetings
Jens

[Lars]

That's a beautiful image of a nebula I haven't seen imaged before.

/Lars

[johnrt]

Splendid image, was this with the Epsilon 130?

[Jedi2014]

Thanks guys, yes, it was imaged with the Epsilon, but the shockfronts were enhanced with my 10“ newtionian.

[Allinthehead]

That's a beauty and a new one for me too.

[Shibby]

I don't recognise this nebula - Lovely image! How did you apply the Ha? Looks nice and natural.

[Barry-Wilson]

Very lovely image Jens - especially the detail around the shock fronts.  I think HaRGB is my favourite imaging format  . . .

[Jedi2014]

Many thanks. You‘re right Barry, Ha is pushing details which RGB could never deliver alone.

Applying Ha to RGB is not simple and there are different ways. I do it in many small steps with Pixinsight as well as with Photoshop during finalizing.

[r3i]

New one on me too.  Excellent image.  One to add to the list.