SH2_261 - Lower's Nebula in Orion (Fran D.)

Celestial hemisphere: Northern · Constellation: Orion (Ori) · Contains: 69 Ori · 69 f01 Ori · HD251235 · HD251347 · HD251374 · HD251395 · HD251497 · HD251512 · HD251536 · HD251563 · HD251631 · HD251632 · HD251652 · HD251680 · HD251704 · HD251732 · HD251767 · HD251900 · HD251924 · HD251925 · HD251979 · HD252004 · HD252088 · HD252089 · HD252090 · HD252135 · HD252245 · HD252246 · HD252333 · HD252359 · And 47 more.

Powered byPixInsight

SH2_261 - Lower's Nebula in Orion

Powered byPixInsight

SH2_261 - Lower's Nebula in Orion

Sh2-261 (LBN863) is located in the constellation Orion close to the border of Gemini. It was discovered by father and son amateur astronomers Harold and Charles Lower in 1939. LBN 862 and LBN 864 as well as several dark nebulae reside within SH2-261. It is thought to be around 3000 light years away.

The nebula consists of mostly ionized Ha, however there is a moderate amount of Sii surrounding the nebula core. The Oiii component is a much weaker signal, confined to the core region.

If one looks within the core, a small blue bubble and bow shock are clearly visible. The star that is located centrally within the bubble is HD41997 (HIP29147). This is classified as an OB star. OB stars are very hot and massive stars of spectral types O or early-type B stars that form in loosely organized groups called OB associations. They are short lived, stars and therefore do not move very far from where they formed. They emit a great deal of UV radiation which rapidly ionizes the surrounding interstellar gas. OB-stars have the highest luminosities and strongest stellar winds of all star classifications. This enables them to interact strongly with the surrounding interstellar medium, thus creating bow shocks. HD41997 may possibly be a special kind of OB star called a Runaway OB star. These stars have high spatial velocities and their origins are still debated.

Version C is a crop of the core area showing HD41197 and the bow shock it is creating.

THe current version is just a small crop of the Original to eliminate a little of the starfield to showcase the nebula.

Original
Final
C
D

Central USA
Cloudy Nights

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	9440271
PixInsight job	XPCOSBNHYTHOOXP9DLAGSIO5UOWNM8UF
PixInsight queue size	n/a
PixInsight stage	TASK_LOG

RA (center)	06h09m27s.827
RA (top/left)	06h12m51s.000
RA (top/right)	06h04m31s.222
RA (bottom/right)	06h06m06s.334
RA (bottom/left)	06h14m22s.751

Dec (center)	+15°45′40″.12
Dec (top/left)	+16°43′37″.99
Dec (top/right)	+16°11′27″.24
Dec (bottom/right)	+14°47′26″.94
Dec (bottom/left)	+15°19′29″.28

Image Index:

Contribution Index (beta):

SH2_261 - Lower's Nebula in Orion

SH2_261 - Lower's Nebula in Orion

Equipment

Acquisition details

Description

Comments

Revisions

Sky plot

Histogram

In these public groups

		...
You have no new notifications.

Image Index:

Contribution Index (beta):

SH2_261 - Lower's Nebula in Orion

SH2_261 - Lower's Nebula in Orion

Equipment

Acquisition details

Description

Comments

Revisions

Sky plot

Histogram

In these public groups

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?

Delete this revision?

Delete this revision?

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