Celestial hemisphere:  Northern  ·  Constellation: Perseus (Per)  ·  Contains:  HD29818  ·  HD29997  ·  HD30178  ·  HD30221  ·  LBN 742  ·  LBN 744  ·  PK158+00.1  ·  Sh2-216
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Sharpless 216 or Sh2-216, John Pancoast
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Sharpless 216 or Sh2-216

Getting plate-solving status, please wait...
Sharpless 216 or Sh2-216, John Pancoast
Powered byPixInsight

Sharpless 216 or Sh2-216

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Acquisition details

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Description

I like the mysterious aspect of this nebula, due to its extremely faint appearance. After about 500,000 years of expanding into space, its fuzzy edges belie how old it is. It is also very large viewed from Earth, about three times the diameter of the moon.

The image, totaling just over 8 hours, was taken under dark skies in central Virginia in November, 2023 - the most time I have ever devoted to a subject.  It is assembled from 50 ten-minute exposures, 20 darks, flats and dark flats. Others who have tackled this difficult target have done it with much longer integration times and/ or shorter, faster telescopes. I look forward to giving this another shot in the future with even more time.

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Sky plot

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Histogram

Sharpless 216 or Sh2-216, John Pancoast

In these public groups

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