Caldwell 49 - The Rosette Nebula
This image is dedicated to the Sterrenstof podcast, the best Dutch podcast about astronomy and spaceflight. Their "Astrophotography tip of the month" inspired me to make the Rosette Nebula my next project.
To create this image, I used the Optolong L-eNhance dualband filter, which isolates two specific emission lines from ionized gas: Hydrogen Alpha (Ha) and Oxygen III (Oiii). In this palette, the Ha appears in deep red tones, while the Oiii shows up as blue and cyan hues.
The Rosette Nebula, located about 4,500 light years away in the constellation Monoceros, is a massive star-forming region. The nebula is home to the open star cluster NGC 2244, whose young stars ionize the surrounding gas, making it glow. With its intricate gas and dust structures, the Rosette Nebula is one of the most striking stellar nurseries in the Milky Way.
If you look closely at the darker structures near the core, you might even spot some animal-like shapes hidden in the dust. I highlighted a few of them in the second image of this post. Let me know what you see.
Acquisition details:
Optolong L-Pro lights:
4hr 45min
57x 300sec
Calibration frames:
20 Darks
20 Flats
20 Biases
Bortle: 5
Gear used:
🔭 Askar 103APO
⚙️ Skywatcher EQ6-R Pro
📸 ZWO ASI294MC Pro
🌌 Optolong L-eNhance
Caldwell 27 - The Crescent Nebula
NGC6888 - The Crescent Nebula is an emission nebula with a bright Wolf-Rayet-star in the middle of it. It's located approximately 5000 lightyears from our Earth. My picture also displays the faint Soap Bubble Nebula (Ju 1) which was discovered in 2007/2008. For this image I choose to use a HOO colour palette which was possible to create with with my OSC camera and dualband Ha/Oiii filter.
Acquisition details:
Optolong L-eNhance lights:
4hr 05min
49x 300sec
Calibration frames:
20 Darks
20 Flats
20 Dark flats
Bortle: 5
Gear used:
🔭 Askar 103APO
⚙️ Skywatcher EQ6-R Pro
📸 ZWO ASI294MC Pro
🌌 Optolong L-eNhance
Caldwell 34 - The Eastern Veil Nebula
NGC 6992 - the Eastern Veil nebula is supernova remnant (SNR) in the constellation Cygnus. As you might know, Cygnus is one of my favorite constellations because of all the bright nebulae in this area. This nebula is made of gas and dust that was ejected by a massive star which exploded between 8,000 and 10,000 years ago. These shells have been expanding through space ever since. Because the shells have been drifting for so long, the nebula has become enormous. From one side to the other it stretched across 110 light-years. Which is 1,040,677,000,000,000 km!
I first photographed this SNR two years ago, but back then my processing skills weren’t very good. The brighter parts of the nebula were completely blown out and lacked colour. Especially the Oiii data requires careful processing. Even with the data from this year, stretching must be done very carefully the preserve all the small details.
I hope you like this image as much as I do. I’m a big fan of the HOO colour palette, so that’s the one I chose to use for processing this image. Luckaly Russel Croman an Seti Astro have really good Narrowband Normalization scripts that help a lot with that.
Acquisition details:
Optolong L-eNhance lights:
35hr 5min
421x 300sec
Calibration frames:
20 Darks
20 Flats
20 Dark flats
Bortle: 5
Gear used:
🔭 Askar 103APO
⚙️ Sky-Watcher EQ6-R Pro
📸 ZWO ASI2600 MC AIR
🌌 Optolong L-eNhance
Caldwell 68 - The Dumbbell Nebula
Messier 27, also known as the Dumbbell Nebula, is a striking planetary nebula located about 1,200 light-years away in the constellation Vulpecula. Formed by the outer layers of a dying star, this glowing cloud of gas surrounds a faint white dwarf at its center. In this image, the nebula appears to stretch out like wings, with delicate structures flowing outward from the core. I captured it using the Optolong L-eNhance filter and processed the image in the HOO palette to highlight the rich Hydrogen Alpha and Oxygen III emissions. The result is a vibrant and detailed view of one of the most iconic planetary nebulae in the night sky.
Acquisition details:
Calibration frames:
20 Darks
20 Flats
20 Biases
Bortle: 5
Optolong L-Pro lights:
4hr 45min
57x 300sec
Gear used:
🔭 Askar 103APO
⚙️ Skywatcher EQ6-R Pro
📸 ZWO ASI294MC Pro
🌌 Optolong L-eNhance