IC 410, nicknamed the Tadpole Nebula, is located 12,000 light-years away in the constellation of Auriga. Two particularly thick dense streams of gas and dust that resemble tadpoles are the highlight of this region and over 10 light-years across. In addition they are a likely source of star formation. The entire region is over 100 light-years across and strong stellar winds have carved and sculpted it into its present shape. These stellar winds originate from open cluster NGC 1893 which is also supplying the energy that is ionizing the nebula gases.

The tadpoles really do look like they are swimming towards the cluster at the edge of the dark region and I find them incredible to look at. This is my second attempt at this object, my first was a not so impressive image from over three years ago - https://www.astrobin.com/qa21lp/?nc=collection&nce=701. This version is far superior in many ways and I am glad I revisited it. Other parts such as the fine detail around the dark central area and the golden-red edges are equally as fascinating to me as the tadpoles themselves.

I did crop this a bit but not as much as I could have because there was more faint nebulosity in the background than I expected and I wanted to keep it. On the other hand I did crop it some because I wanted to highlight the finer detail on the tadpoles and central area.

So why was this image so improved from my previous attempt? By far it was new filters! I upgraded my good & dependable 7nm narrowband OIII & Ha filters for 3nm Antlia Pro filters. I originally planned just to upgrade the OIII filter but liked the results so much I ordered the Ha the next day (I will upgrade the SII as soon as funds become available). The narrower band pass allows for a much better or more specific signal so images are much more detailed. In addition, the well known halos around bright stars using OIII filters were completely eliminated with this filter. One of the benefits of having an 8-position filter wheel is the ability to use the empty filter try for same night experimenting which is exactly what I did. I made a couple of videos comparing the 7nm vs. the 3nm filters:


OIII - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WJZ-KWoS-KY&t=12s
Ha - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J0r3NkIawEs&t=7s
Website - http://astroquest1.blogspot.com/2023/02/3nm-antlia-narrowband-filters.html

Dates: 12-29-22, 1-9-23, 16, 18, 24, 2-6, 8, 10, 11, 14, 15, 18