Sh2-157 and NGC 7635 The Lobster Claw and Bubble Nebulae in Narrowband

[eshy76]

Hi everyone,

As part of the stretch of clear nights we had at the beginning of September, I went for these targets. I couldn't resist trying to capture both these objects in the same field of view, although the capture itself was affected by guiding and focus issues, not to mention the full moon.

In terms of processing, I went for a "natural blend" narrowband colour mix here, though I may try a Hubble palette version of this in due course.

The Lobster Claw Nebula, or Sharpless 157 (Sh2-157), is an emission nebula and, according to some sources, is between 8,000 and 17,000 light-years from Earth between the Cassiopeia and Cepheus constellations. There are several interesting features in the image, not least the Bubble Nebula, NGC 7635, a HII region emission nebula which lies 7,000-11,000 light-years from us and is a shell surrounding, and excited by, the star SAO 20575. Also in the frame are the Wolf-Rayet massive star WR 157, an open cluster of stars, NGC 7510 and the nebula NGC 7538, which is home to the largest yet discovered protostar, 300 times the size of our solar system.

14.2 hours of integration shot over two nights, WOZ73 + CEM25P + ASI1600 + Astrodon filters, 99% moon!

Full details here

Thanks for looking!

[astro mick]

Well done,what a nice image,and the claw definitely stands out.You have given a lot of hours to this,and it shows.

Mick.

[eshy76]

1 hour ago, astro mick said:

Well done,what a nice image,and the claw definitely stands out.You have given a lot of hours to this,and it shows.

Mick.

Thank you very much! In the processing I could have maybe done some more star reduction to help the claw stand out more, but I kept ending up with posterized stars, so I didn't try and force it. I like the result!