Seagull Nebula

[James]

With the recent clear spell I've been out doing my usual coping in the cold with lots of food, hot drink etc etc and doing some imaging.. the imaging being somewhat secondary to the eating methinks.. I've got a couple of southern targets I've been trying to do for years and every time I've tried something has gone wrong.  My efforts with the Witches Head aren't looking great (horrific gradients) but I've managed to get something of the Seagull Nebula, IC2177, in Monoceros. Or at least, I seem to have turned something named after a humble, albeit irritating, seaside bird into something that looks like a vengeful Ukrainian eagle ..

The image was taken using an ASI2600mm-Pro with Optolong narrowband filters through a RedCat 71 all managed by an ASIAir and comprises 25x Ha, 21x OIII, 17x SII subs all at 5 mins, so, just a little over 5 hours in total. Ideally I'd have done more OIII and SII but circumstances get in the way. In fact this object seems to have a fair bit of SII unlike so many other objects.  I've used the Hubble palette for mapping the filters.. (Ha to Green, SII to Red and OIII to blue).

I was/am surprised at just how much stuff there is to the bottom right and I've actually toned it down slightly as it was overshadowing the main attraction. I haven't done much with he stars, partly time, partly they look OK (bar a few quirkily coloured ones).  I don' think I'll be going back to this one as I've like to get more of the Witches Head, though I fear with the moon returning and spring approaching (honestly, it is) I fear that'll get delayed till next year..

Just for fun I've put a screenshot from SkySafari showing where the Seagull is.. I know most of you know but some may not... and I didn't know that 'Thors helmet' is just a short way away to the bottom right of this image until a friendly soul pointed that out. Hmm.. perhaps a mosaic is needed

The image has been jpeggerised probably and clicking on it will generally give a slightly higher quality image (I think!).

James

Screenshot from SkySafari... regrettably the view from my usual imaging spot doesn't look like that...

 

[peter shah]

Lovely rendition of the Seagull James

[Elp]

Great image, you've captured the bow shockwave also. I did this recently and managed to frame Thor's Helmet nebula into the same shot, a bit frustrating as it's quite low in the sky.

[Sunshine]

Amazing!

[James]

7 hours ago, Elp said:

Great image, you've captured the bow shockwave also. I did this recently and managed to frame Thor's Helmet nebula into the same shot, a bit frustrating as it's quite low in the sky.

It was your image that made me aware of Thors Helmet being so close. Perhaps this will need to be a work in progress and maybe I’d better try a mosaic 😊

[Astroscot2]

I really like that James,  delicately processed too.

 

Mark