Tonight was a clear night for a while and while waiting for the Rosette Nebula to come into view I, for the first time spent a little time on the California Nebula. I could spend as much time as I would have liked because the clouds rolled in so I had to call it a night. However, for now I am pleased with the result. I used SIRIL for most of the post processing and BlurXterminator, NoiseXterminator and GraXpert for gradient removal vs just using SIRIL's background removal tool.
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The
California Nebula (
NGC 1499/
Sh2-220) is an
emission nebula located in the constellation
Perseus. Its name comes from its resemblance to the outline of the
US State of
California in long exposure photographs. It is almost 2.5° long on the sky and, because of its very low
surface brightness, it is extremely difficult to observe visually. It can be observed with a
Hα filter (isolates the H
α line at 656 nm) or H
β filter (isolates the H
β line at 486 nm) in a rich-field
telescope under dark skies.
[1] It lies at a distance of about 1,000
light yearsfrom
Earth. Its fluorescence is due to excitation of the H
β line in the nebula by the nearby prodigiously energetic O7 star,
Xi Persei (also known as
Menkib).
[2]The California Nebula was discovered by
E. E. Barnard in 1884.By coincidence, the California Nebula transits in the zenith in central California as the latitude matches the declination of the object.NASA selected the California Nebula as its Astronomy Picture of the Day on October, 22, 2022, based on a submission from an amateur astronomer taken from a ground-based telescope.
[3]- The California Nebula". Observing at Skyhound. Retrieved December 23, 2013.
- "Menkib (Xi Persei)". David Darling. Encyclopedia of Science.
- "APOD: 2022 October 22 - NGC 1499: The California Nebula". apod.nasa.gov. Retrieved 2022-10-26.
@information from Wikipedia
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