I was hoping for more data, however by 22:15 my Telescopes track started leaching into my neighbors tree, 15 min later I called it a night. That being said, I am going to give IC2118 more time tonight, Astropsheric forecasts a clear night .
Unfortunately the clouds are starting to roll in this afternoon (15:00), I am hoping the sky will clear in a few more hours. So for now I am going to publish, and if I am fortunate tonight to gather more data, I'll see if I can bring out more detail.
IC 2118 (also known as
Witch Head Nebula due to its shape) is an extremely faint
reflection nebulabelieved to be an ancient supernova remnant or gas cloud illuminated by nearby
supergiant star
Rigelin the constellation of
Orion. The nebula lies in the
Eridanus Constellation,
[1] about 900
light-yearsfrom
Earth. The nature of the dust particles, reflecting blue light better than red, is a factor in giving the Witch Head its blue color. Radio observations show substantial carbon monoxide emission throughout parts of IC 2118, an indicator of the presence of molecular clouds and star formation in the nebula. In fact candidates for pre-main sequence stars and some classic
T-Tauri stars have been found deep within the nebula.
[2]The molecular clouds of IC 2118 are probably juxtaposed to the outer boundaries of the vast
Orion-Eridanus bubble, a giant supershell of molecular hydrogen blown by the high mass stars of the
Orion OB1 association. As the supershell expands into the interstellar medium, favorable circumstances for star formation occur. IC 2118 is located in one such area. The wind blown appearance and cometary shape of the bright reflection nebula is highly suggestive of a strong association with the high mass luminous stars of Orion OB1. The fact that the heads of the cometary clouds of IC2118 point northeast towards the association is strong support of that relationship.
References:
- "Witch Head Nebula". NASA. Archived from the original on 2023-06-22.
- Kun; Prusti, T.; Nikolić, S.; Johansson, L. E. B.; Walton, N. A. (2004). "The IC 2118 association: New T Tauri stars in high-latitude molecular clouds". Astronomy and Astrophysics. 418 (1): 89–98. arXiv:astro-ph/0402353. Bibcode:2004A&A...418...89K. doi:10.1051/0004-6361:20034510. S2CID15970267.
@Information from Wikipedia
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