Celestial hemisphere:  Northern  ·  Constellation: Cassiopeia (Cas)
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SH2-170 - The Small Rosette, Peter Hannah
SH2-170 - The Small Rosette
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SH2-170 - The Small Rosette

Getting plate-solving status, please wait...
SH2-170 - The Small Rosette, Peter Hannah
SH2-170 - The Small Rosette
Powered byPixInsight

SH2-170 - The Small Rosette

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Description

Sharpless 170 is a diffuse H-II region about 6,000 light years away in the direction of Cassiopeia. The cloud is being ionized by an extremely hot O-type star at the centre of the image.

The visible part of the nebula is about 15 arc-minutes across, corresponding to a physical size of around 26 light years.

The dominant contribution to the nebula is from the H-α emission line at a wavelength of 656 nm, though ‘dominant’ is hardly an appropriate term given its overall faintness. The image represents a total of 108 hours’ exposure and in fact the raw images taken through O-III and S-II filters reveal virtually nothing until they have been stacked and enhanced to increase contrast.

The chosen colour palette is that pioneered at the Canada-France-Hawaii telescope (CFHT) in which the H-α is mapped to the red channel, O-III to the green and S-II to the blue. The weaker channels have been boosted to generate a more pleasing result. Thus pure red corresponds to H-α alone; magenta indicates where S-II also makes a contribution; while the gold shade near the centre shows where the O-III signal is strongest.

Comments

Revisions

  • SH2-170 - The Small Rosette, Peter Hannah
    Original
  • Final
    SH2-170 - The Small Rosette, Peter Hannah
    B

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SH2-170 - The Small Rosette, Peter Hannah