LDN981

[alan4908]

My first attempt at LDN981, a dark cloud nebula located in Cygnus.

I decided to try to make the image a little more colourful than the conventional rendition by capturing 10 hours of Ha data which I subsequently blended into the Red and Lum channels.  This significantly increased the red parts of the image and the definition of the dark dust lanes, see below. 

At the bottom left on the image, an interesting object can be seen (Herbig Haro 389). This is revealed as a blue/red angular shock wave which has been created by a fast moving jet of partially ionised gas, which has been ejected by the central star, colliding with nearby gas.  

The image below represents 25 hours integration time and was taken with my Esprit 150.

Alan

LIGHTS: L:29, R:20, G:18, B:23 x 600s; Ha: 20 x 1800s. DARKS:30, BIAS:100, FLATS:40 all at -20C.