Here shown as a color and narrowband hybrid image, this active star forming nebula lies in the Monoceros Constellation (the Unicorn) only 5,200 light-years distant. This massive cloud of hydrogen has been condensing to form new stars and is thought to be very similar to the environment that gave birth to our own Solar System.
Captured from my backyard observatory in fremont, Michigan USA. This is a composite of data captured using QHY11 and QHY9 Monochrome CCD Cameras. Both broadband and narrowband filters were used with Hydrogen-Alpha mapped to Red, SII mapped to Green and OIII mapped to Blue and Green channels.
Total Exposure time 11 hours 48 mins.
Equipment
QHY11S monochrome CCD cooled to -20C
QHY9M monochrome CCD cooled to -30C
Thomas M. Back TMB 92SS F5.5 APO Refractor
Takahashi E-180 F2.8 Astrograph
Paramount GT-1100S German Equatorial Mount (with MKS 4000)
Image Acquisition Maxim DL
Stacking and Calibrating: CCDStack
Registration of images in Registar
Post Processing Photoshop CS5
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