Panorama of supernova remnant HB3 next to the Heart Nebula

[gorann]

I have now finalized this 3-panel RASA8 mosaic (totalling 33 hours) of this rarely imaged SNR first catalogued by radio astronomer as HB3, but also known as G132.7+1.3. When adding the final left panel I wanted to catch as much as possible of the nebulosity north of the Heart Nebula rather than getting the whole Heart Nebula (sorry for the partial castration😁), as there in no lack of images of that one.

The project started when I thought I saw some interesting structures in the area just west (to the right) of the Heart Nebula on Aladin Sky Atlas and decided to give it a try with my dual-RASA8 rig. First night I collected RGB data and it looked a bit tame, so I decided to spend a night collecting Ha and Oiii using the NBZ filter (78x5min). Duing processing I realized there was something there resembling the Spagetti Nebula, so a large Supernova remnant. Searching the net revealed that the first image showing the Oiii structures of HB3 was posted less than a month ago as a preprint on arXiv (https://arxiv.org/abs/2202.07749v1). Thus, mine is possibly the second one ever posted revealing this faint but clear Oiii signal in the shock waves.

So, caught 2-13 March 2022 with a dual-RASA8 rig with ASI2600MC on a Mesu 200 mount. This is a mix of RGB (no filter) and HaOiii data (IDAS NBZ filter), totalling about 33 hours.

EDIT: I now added a starless version made by Star Xterminator in PS.

Comments most welcome!

Cheers, Göran

Here are my provious post about the first image (central panel):

 

 

Edited March 17, 2022 by gorann

[glafnazur]

Stunning image, the colour and detail is fantastic 👍

[ollypenrice]

Good grief, that's astonishing. I can hardly believe it's been ignored in this way. Hearty congratulations. Image of the year for me! Bravo.

(I have done a multi-panel of the Heart, Soul, SH2-202 and VDB14 /15 but, unfortunately, this object lies just outside that one's frame.

I'm sure there will be more renditions of this coming online now but this is beautifully done as well as being exciting for its content.

Olly

[gorann]

45 minutes ago, glafnazur said:

Stunning image, the colour and detail is fantastic 👍

Thanks a lot, nuch appreciated!

[gorann]

7 minutes ago, ollypenrice said:

Good grief, that's astonishing. I can hardly believe it's been ignored in this way. Hearty congratulations. Image of the year for me! Bravo.

(I have done a multi-panel of the Heart, Soul, SH2-202 and VDB14 /15 but, unfortunately, this object lies just outside that one's frame.

I'm sure there will be more renditions of this coming online now but this is beautifully done as well as being exciting for its content.

Olly

Thanks a lot Olly!

Good, then it is not only me that is surprised that it has gone unnoticed for so long. One exception is Richard Sweeney that commented on my Astrobin post and draw my attention to a Ha image he had posted in 2018 of the Heart and also showing this SNR.

A likely reason why it has been missed is that it has a very bright neighbour and that many widefield images tries to get both the Heart and Soul into the FOV and then this SNR is left out. Of course the RASA8 is also a great machine for finding faint stuff, especially in narrowband.

[Adam J]

I have a small section of this in an image of the fish head from years back but not enough to have recognised the larger structure. Great stuff well done. 

Adam 

[gorann]

12 minutes ago, Adam J said:

I have a small section of this in an image of the fish head from years back but not enough to have recognised the larger structure. Great stuff well done. 

Adam 

Thanks Adam! Yes, I think that is what has kept it a secret for so long - most of it usually being outside the FOV and therefore not recognisible.

[mackiedlm]

That is a stunning image. Beautifully processed. Like others here I cant understand why it is so rarely imaged.

[gorann]

11 hours ago, mackiedlm said:

That is a stunning image. Beautifully processed. Like others here I cant understand why it is so rarely imaged.

Thanks a lot! I guess it is rarely imaged becase it is quite faint and most of us, including me, did not know of its existence. It was only becasue I have a light bucket like the RASA8 and a dark site that I noticed it. There are surely more of them out there.

Edited March 17, 2022 by gorann

[Stuf1978]

That's absolutely spectacular, very very nice work

 

[gorann]

8 minutes ago, Stuf1978 said:

That's absolutely spectacular, very very nice work

 

Thanks a lot for the kind and encouraging words!

[Shibby]

Fascinating. And a lovely mosaic! Congratulations!

Perhaps I should have a try for a close-up of that bright** looking region of it to the East? I imagine it would require some long exposures at F/5, though...

 

**Relatively speaking; not bright at all!

[gorann]

Thanks a lot Shibby! The region I think you talk about is relatively bright and was noticed by by Lynds in his catalogue, numbered as LBN641.

Good luck!