Sh2-261, Lower's Nebula, 6 Mar 2015, Hα False Color Animation (David Dearden)

Celestial hemisphere: Northern · Constellation: Orion (Ori) · Contains: Sh2-261

Sh2-261, Lower's Nebula, 6 Mar 2015, Hα False Color Animation

Cold, clear night with a lot of moonlight. First-time observation of Lower's Nebula. Had a lot of trouble getting my equipment to connect, but rebooted and then everything seemed to settle down. Initially tried to synch from Betelgeuse, but during one of its misbehaviors the mount started slewing immediately after connecting, so rather than go through the contortions again I had to do to look through the Telrad, I just did an Astrotortilla plate solve synch on the star field, which worked fine. The PicGoto took me to the target with no problem. I may not have had the best focus at the beginning of the run, but it wasn't too far off. Midway through I finessed it a bit.

Date: 6 Mar 2015

Subject: Sh2-261, Lower’s Nebula

Scope: Astrotech AT8IN+Antares 0.5x focal reducer

Filter: Baader 7 nm Hα

Mount: CG-5 (Synta motors, PicGoto Simplificado)

Guiding: 9x50 Finder/Guider + DSI Ic + PHD 2.4.1 (Win 7 ASCOM)

Camera: DSI IIc no cooling (about 0 °C)

Acquisition: Nebulosity 3.3.2, no dither

Exposure: 25x600 s

Stacking: Neb 3.3.2, bad pixel map, bias included, 33 flats, extract R, histogram match, deBayer & square, trans+rot align, 40-60% median combine.

Processing: StarTools 1.3.5.289 Crop; Develop: 74.99%; HDR

ptimize; Deconvolute 4.1 pix; Track 3.5 pix; Magic:Shrink 1 pix. Photoshop CC 2014 + Carboni Astronomy Tools Hα false color black space; Astroframe; Assemble animated GIF.

Please note: The following tables are updated every 24 hours.

Distribution of astrophotographers

This table shows the number of distinct astrophotographers who have been assigned and IOTD/TP award compared to the total number of images awarded.
	Distinct awarded users	Total awarded images
Image of the day
Top picks
Top pick nominations

Distribution of subject types

This table shows the distribution of awards per subject type, compared to the popularity of images of that subject type.
	Image of the day	Top pick	Top pick nominations	Total submitted
Deep sky
Solar system
Extremely wide field
Star trails
Northern lights
Noctilucent clouds
Landscape

Distribution of data sources

This table shows the distribution of awards per data source, compared to the popularity of images acquired from that data source.
	Image of the day	Top pick	Top pick nominations	Total submitted
Backyard
Traveller
Own remote observatory
Amateur hosting facility
Public amaeteur data
Professional, scientific grade data
Mix of multiple sources
Other
Unknown

The “AstroBin Image of the Day and Top Picks”, or IOTD/TP, is a long-running system to promote beautiful, interesting, peculiar, or otherwise amazing astrophotographs, with a focus on technical excellence. Learn more.

Submitted The date and time when you submitted this image for IOTD/TP consideration.	...
Views by Submitters (available since September 19th, 2023) Every image is assigned to 50% of available Submitters. In the event that at least 80% of them don't view the image before its time in the IOTD/TP process expires, it's assigned to the other 50% of Submitters and the process begins anew.
Promotions by Submitters When 3 distinct Submitters promote the image, it moves on to the next stage of the process: evaluation for Top Pick status. This requirement, in addition to anonymization of images and distribution to only a subset of them, prevents biases and ensures that the best images are selected.
Promotions by Reviewers When 3 distinct Reviewers promote the image, it moves on to the next stage of the process: evaluation for IOTD status.
Early dismissal Staff members have a lot of images to inspect on a daily basis, and they can dismiss images if they believe they don't meet the requirements for IOTD/TP selection. If an image is dismissed 5 times, it's removed from the process. This streamlines the process and ensures that any bias present in promotions could be overruled by other staff members.

Status	Advanced success
Started	...
Astrometry.net job	563911
PixInsight job	AR29Y0CNVD2ZDYKMXOUBMR8LJHECHPO5
PixInsight queue size	n/a
PixInsight stage	n/a

RA (center)	06h08m56s.30
RA (top/left)	06h07m29s.31
RA (top/right)	06h10m32s.60
RA (bottom/right)	06h10m23s.45
RA (bottom/left)	06h07m20s.43

Dec (center)	+15°49′46″.3
Dec (top/left)	+15°30′47″.4
Dec (top/right)	+15°33′33″.5
Dec (bottom/right)	+16°08′43″.9
Dec (bottom/left)	+16°05′57″.7

Image Index:

Contribution Index (beta):

Sh2-261, Lower's Nebula, 6 Mar 2015, Hα False Color Animation

Equipment

Acquisition details

Description

Comments

Sky plot

Histogram

		...
You have no new notifications.

Image Index:

Contribution Index (beta):

Sh2-261, Lower's Nebula, 6 Mar 2015, Hα False Color Animation

Equipment

Acquisition details

Description

Comments

Sky plot

Histogram

Notifications

AstroBin is in READ ONLY mode

Sorry :-(

Sorry :-(

Sorry :-(

Are you really sure?

Warning!

Warning!

Are you sure?

Report abuse

Slideshow settings

IOTD/TP stats (last [x] days)

Distribution of astrophotographers

Distribution of subject types

Distribution of data sources

Sorry

Sorry

Share

Upload new revision

Upload uncompressed source (XISF/FITS/PSD/TIFF)

Delete image and all its revisions?

Delete original image?

Delete all other versions?

Delete all revisions?

IOTD/TP stats

The following people like this image

The following people bookmarked this image

Warning

Flag malfunctioning thumbnails

Contains

Remove yourself as a collaborator

Plate-solving information