Banard 228: A Quiescent, but Attractive, Molecular Cloud (Alex Woronow)

Celestial hemisphere: Southern · Constellation: Lupus (Lup) · Contains: 3 Lup · 4 Lup · 5 Lup · The star χ Lup · The star ψ1 Lup · The star ψ2 Lup

Banard 228: A Quiescent, but Attractive, Molecular Cloud

Banard 228: A Quiescent, but Attractive, Molecular Cloud

OTA: FSQ 106 (with 0.73 reducer)
Camera: FLI PL16083 (CCD)
Observatory: Telescope Live Aus-2
Date of Capture: May '22
Date of Processing: Mar '24

Exposures Used:
R: 16 x 300 sec
G: 20 x   "
B: 17 x   "
L: 17 x   "
Total Exposure time: 5.8 hours
Image Width: 5d 25'

Processing Tools:
1.   Commercial: PixInsight, Topaz
2.   Pixinsight Addons: NoiseXTerminator, BlurXTerminator, StarXTerminator, iHDR
3.   My Scripts: NB_Assistant, AC_Restar, Subframe Weighting Tool (Excel w/ J. Hunt), ColorTweaker

Target Description:
This giant molecular cloud, like most, consists of gas and dust that obscure the starlight from beyond to varying degrees. It appears dark mainly because the stars it has spawned are few; no obvious ones appear in this picture. Stars spawned within this nebula would, when they ignite, ionize the cloud and push the gasses away from them, creating a near void in the vicinity. The blue reflection nebulae around some stars signal an interaction between those stars and the cloud but do not necessarily mean that the cloud gave birth to those stars. Stars move, and so do nebulae. The stars in the famous Pleiades illuminate that cloud as they move through it, having been born elsewhere. Perhaps the same dynamic occurs here?

Processing Description:
Not much out of the ordinary to discuss here. As usual for my processing, the luminance data were manipulated to augment the RGB channels in the linear processing stage so that the L would not degrade the color or detail in the colors and yet provide a modicum of noise reduction, largely irrelevant relative to what AI can do. But if you have the data, why not?

Alex Woronow

Final
Original
B

B

Title: Annotated

Uploaded: ...

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Status	Advanced failed
Started	...
Astrometry.net job	9434302
PixInsight job	03D6D999EJZPBFIKRZGJ1E1146KQGTIP
PixInsight queue size	n/a
PixInsight stage	PLATE_SOLVING_IMAGE

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Banard 228: A Quiescent, but Attractive, Molecular Cloud

Banard 228: A Quiescent, but Attractive, Molecular Cloud

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Banard 228: A Quiescent, but Attractive, Molecular Cloud

Banard 228: A Quiescent, but Attractive, Molecular Cloud

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