SH2-261 Lower's Nebula

[groberts]

Located in the outer regions of the Orion constellation above Betelgeuse, Lower's Nebula consists of mainly ionized hydrogen.  It’s surprising that this interesting, quite large but faint object does not get more attention from astrophotographers, who are perhaps too busy collecting photons from the more famous objects that flourish within nearby Orion itself?  For once clear skies were abundant here during January which allowed for some 17-hours integration time, albeit mostly accompanied by a waxing to full moon.

The data lends itself to various processing approaches and I played around for a long while with a number of different combinations, in the end favouring an SHO + HOO blend as the main image and am pleased with the result.

Graham  

Ha 44 x 600s

OIII 30 x 600s

SII 28 x 600s

[Stuart1971]

Superb, nice contrast….👍🏼

I tried this the other night and got 8 subs, and then clouds stopped play, I was using my L-Extreme filter as with the waxing moon fairly close I thought it would stop the shine from that, but it still seemed to penetrate and stop some detail, which I was surprised at….🤔 will give a try next time I’m out…assuming it’s still visible…👍🏼

[alan potts]

That's a beautiful capture and object, as Orion is fairly high here I may try and get some shots of it, the weather has been against me of late and I dare say 17 hours may be a bit beyond me this year. I do not recall seeing it before on here.

Alan

[groberts]

Thanks for the comments + keep persevering.  IMO this is an interesting & rewarding target, only surpised it doesn't get more attention.

Graham 

[glafnazur]

That's a new object for me, I'll have to look it up. Lovely image, nice colour and detail

[groberts]

FYI here's the HOO version - I prefer the SHO-HOO colours + brings out more detail

 

Edited March 9, 2022 by groberts

[glafnazur]

5 minutes ago, groberts said:

FYI here's the HOO version - I prefer the SHO-HOO colours + grings out more detail

 

Agreed, I prefer the SHO-HOO, the detail is much better.