Celestial hemisphere:  Southern  ·  Constellation: Ophiuchus (Oph)  ·  Contains:  13.25  ·  13.48  ·  20 Oph  ·  216 Kleopatra  ·  347 Pariana  ·  Ophiucus  ·  The star 20Oph

Image of the day 06/05/2021

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    Seahorse in Ophiuchus (SH2-27, LDN 240, LDN 207, LDN 146 and more), Adam Block
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    Seahorse in Ophiuchus (SH2-27, LDN 240, LDN 207, LDN 146 and more)

    Image of the day 06/05/2021

    Getting plate-solving status, please wait...
      Seahorse in Ophiuchus (SH2-27, LDN 240, LDN 207, LDN 146 and more), Adam Block
      Powered byPixInsight

      Seahorse in Ophiuchus (SH2-27, LDN 240, LDN 207, LDN 146 and more)

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      Seahorse in Ophiuchus

      Perhaps the "Serpent Bearer" (Ophiuchus) holds more creatures than snakes.

      On the eastern edge of SH2-27, a large glowing cloud of hydrogen gas near Zeta Ophiuchi, there are some clouds of dust that float in the foreground. Like a seahorse (or perhaps another crooked snake) LDN 240 and 207 make up the distinct vertical creature at the top right. Near the bottom left the spikey clouds of LDN 146 hang out. These are not small features on the sky as this image is more than 6 degrees in the vertical dimension. When I started to process this image I thought there were large gradients in the image because I was unaware of SH2-27. However, I could not find an obvious issue with the data or my processing. This excess red made me research the H-alpha surveys of the sky and sure enough SH2-27 is a very prominent red glowing cloud that shows up- even in this broadband RGB image.

      John Gleason has a wonderful H-alpha image of the entire SH2-27 complex here:

      https://www.astrobin.com/363646/

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      Seahorse in Ophiuchus (SH2-27, LDN 240, LDN 207, LDN 146 and more), Adam Block