Polaris IFN and some Friends lost in the soft dusts (Benoit SAINTOT)

Celestial hemisphere: Northern · Constellation: Ursa Minor (UMi) · Contains: 1 UMi) · 1 alf UMi · 2 UMi · Alrucaba · Cinosura · HD14718 · HD163545 · HD187138 · HD190250 · HD195252 · HD211455 · HD213126 · HD221525 · HD245 · HD29944 · HD31432 · HD39164 · HD5256 · HD57535 · HD5914 · HD6319 · HD66368 · HD946 · HD96870 · LBN 606 · LBN 617 · LDN 1289 · LDN 1292 · Mismar (α UMi · NGC 3172 · And 9 more.

Image of the day 02/20/2024

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Polaris IFN and some Friends lost in the soft dusts

Image of the day 02/20/2024

Powered byPixInsight

Polaris IFN and some Friends lost in the soft dusts

This is my process of IFN around Polaris.

Integrated Flux Nebulae (IFN) are extremely faint, diffuse structures of interstellar dust illuminated by the integrated flux of nearby stars. These nebulae are challenging to observe and photograph due to their low surface brightness, making them elusive in traditional visual observations.

These IFN are predominantly composed of microscopic particles such as carbon and silicate dust, scattered throughout the interstellar medium. Unlike traditional emission or reflection nebulae, IFN does not emit light itself but becomes visible through the scattering of starlight by the dust grains it contains. This scattered light creates a subtle glow that can be detected only with quite long-exposure. Despite there isn't actually a map of where to find IFNs, some places are well known, like this one around Polaris.

This is my second try at IFNs. The first one was from my backyard, with my small setup composed of a FRA400 and a ASI2600MM (Mandel WIlson 2)

I wish I could have chosen better exposure times. 600s is too much for this target, so the core was saturated. Even the 300" ones were too long. Even with the HDR composition the core was still saturated in a tiny zone around center

I aimed to create, with this image, an impression of softness combined with a certain icy atmosphere, unconsciously referencing the "Polar," while maintaining saturated stars, which are almost the sole contributors of color to this ambiance.
There are also tiny gems hidden in the dusts, like NGC3172.

Hope you enjoy it.

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Status	Advanced success
Started	...
Astrometry.net job	9163808
PixInsight job	7IDZ0RLRJ1DZCUDDRP3VRY7D3JWSJGTF
PixInsight queue size	n/a
PixInsight stage	TASK_LOG

RA (center)	03h00m36s.35
RA (top/left)	19h11m22s.20
RA (top/right)	00h50m11s.92
RA (bottom/right)	05h37m44s.80
RA (bottom/left)	11h28m02s.31

Dec (center)	+89°07′42″.5
Dec (top/left)	+87°13′05″.6
Dec (top/right)	+86°01′56″.4
Dec (bottom/right)	+86°06′18″.8
Dec (bottom/left)	+87°19′47″.5

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Image of the day 02/20/2024

Polaris IFN and some Friends lost in the soft dusts

Image of the day 02/20/2024

Polaris IFN and some Friends lost in the soft dusts

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Image of the day 02/20/2024

Polaris IFN and some Friends lost in the soft dusts

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Polaris IFN and some Friends lost in the soft dusts

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