Sh2-284 (2023) - Colorized SHO w/ RGB Stars (Kurt Zeppetello)

Sh2-284 (2023) - Colorized SHO w/ RGB Stars

Link: http://youtube.com/AstroQuest1

This is my version of the emission nebula Sh2-284 (also known as LBN 983 & LBN 984). Sh2-284 is a star forming region of gas and dust located in the constellation Monoceros approximately 15,000 light-years from the Earth. I really like the edges of the main portion as there are several "elephant trunk" formations - huge pillars of gas and dust that stretch into the central portion of the nebula. My favorite is the pillar located on the bottom which resembles a forefinger of a hand pointing upwards to the stars in the center of the nebula. These pillars are formed by the intense radiation and stellar winds from the very hot stars of the open cluster designated Dolidze 25. The cluster is very young at about 3 to 4 million years and is responsible for clearing a central void in the surrounding nebula. Overall the nebula is approximately 150 light-years across.

I was really happy about imaging this as it was somewhat low in a location where I had a limited window. Nine nights of imaging began February 21 and ended on March 26. My new Antlia 3nm filters were used capturing the Ha and OIII narrowband data. Processing was fun and a bit tedious as I did it using the normal SHO combining methods but simultaneously using the Colorized SHO processing method (colorize OIII to blue, SII to yellow-red, and Ha to gold and then combine them using Pixel Math). This was only the second time I used this method and I wanted to ensure the base image was at least as good or better than the normal method. Interestingly, they were similar in color, however, the Colorized version did seem slightly better so I went with it. I am pretty happy with the results and think it is quite interesting how inside the OIII inside the gold-red ring is a turquoise color where the OIII outside the ring is deeper blue.

Imaged with N.I.N.A.
N.I.N.A. Users
Imaged with APT
Sharpless2 Objects
Northeast Imagers

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Status	Advanced success
Started	...
Astrometry.net job	7623542
PixInsight job	JZXJCC7FZ7Z4E5YEKRGJABT2ME474ROW
PixInsight queue size	n/a
PixInsight stage	TASK_LOG

RA (center)	06h44m46s.70
RA (top/left)	06h47m43s.26
RA (top/right)	06h46m15s.58
RA (bottom/right)	06h41m50s.50
RA (bottom/left)	06h43m17s.80

Dec (center)	+00°21′35″.2
Dec (top/left)	-00°14′01″.2
Dec (top/right)	+01°13′45″.5
Dec (bottom/right)	+00°57′11″.2
Dec (bottom/left)	-00°30′35″.3

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