The Tadpoles Nebula

[Whistlin Bob]

I caught this one on Christmas Eve. We had a lovely clear night, and although it was very much family time I did manage to sneak out and set the scope running. It was pretty clear nearly all night, so I was able to gather data for all the channels in one night- a rarity in UK narrowband imaging. Details are:

Capture details are:

RGB (for the stars) – 10 mins/channel – 20x 30 seconds, Ha – 90x 2mins, Oiii and Sii – 75x 2mins.

130pds on HEQ5 with ASI1600mm at Gain 250.

I’m normally indecisive about the best presentation, but in this instance the Hubble version was definitely the one to go with, as it really highlights the tadpoles. I’ve also included a Starnet version- it definitely adds some noise, but you can see the faint bits of the nebula much better.

I was curious about the Tadpoles- apparently they’re similar to the Pillars of Creation in the Eagle Nebula- dust and gas left over from the formation of the nearby star cluster NGC1893, and the nursery for future star creation. They point away from the cluster because of stellar winds and radiation pressure from it.