Celestial hemisphere:  Southern  ·  Constellation: Corona Australis (CrA)  ·  Contains:  Alfecca Meridiana  ·  Corona Australis  ·  HD174525  ·  HD174634  ·  HD174656  ·  HD174657  ·  HD174688  ·  HD174689  ·  HD174690  ·  HD174760  ·  HD174778  ·  HD174859  ·  HD174871  ·  HD174891  ·  HD175002  ·  HD175003  ·  HD175027  ·  HD175028  ·  HD175048  ·  HD175073  ·  HD175074  ·  HD175075  ·  HD175093  ·  HD175143  ·  HD175195  ·  HD175216  ·  HD175261  ·  HD175262  ·  HD175302  ·  HD175323  ·  And 206 more.
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Corona Australis and its Molecular Cloud, Gabriel R. Santos (grsotnas)
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Corona Australis and its Molecular Cloud

Getting plate-solving status, please wait...
Corona Australis and its Molecular Cloud, Gabriel R. Santos (grsotnas)
Powered byPixInsight

Corona Australis and its Molecular Cloud

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Description

This stunning constellation is striking to the eye on a clear night as a beautiful crown of tiny stars. However, deep exposures reveal there is much more to it. Here, shown in a 1.5h image, the Stars and the Dust of Corona Australis can be seen.

Cosmic dust clouds sprawl across a really rich starfield. The dense dark cloud, probably less than 500 light-years away is about 8 light-years long. Nearby lies several reflection nebulae cataloged as NGC 6726, 6727, 6729, and IC 4812. A characteristic blue color is produced as light from hot stars is reflected by the cosmic dust. Globular NGC 6723 is also seen, and, even though it appears to be part of the group, it really is much farther, 30000 ly away. [Paragraph adapted from APOD and Wikipedia]

This image if one of my longest integration thus far, and is quite short compared to deeper images of other people. This image surprised me in many ways, but, even during acquisition I knew this would be a keeper, at least to me. Steady and clear night that was, despite a crescent moon, that had just set when I started taking the exposures. A processing challenge, though! The stars are difficult to control in order to bring out the faint nebulosity, and the overall detail of the faint dust is difficult to separate from the noise. The SNR could be further enhanced by longer exposures - I may retry this object next season and add 1-2h to really clean the data. All things considered, this is my result - I personally really liked it.

*Please check the full image 2400px - resized from original)*

Constructive criticism, comments and suggestions are more than welcome in the comments section. Thank's for taking your time to look at this image.

Taken from Rural Skies (Bortle 3-4; NELM ~6.2; SQM ~21.6*calculated), from Cristina, MG, Brazil (22ºS latitude).

Date and Time: July 9th, 2016, at 22h (UTC-3, start of capture)

Camera: Unmodded Canon T4i/650D, at ISO 1600

Lens: Tamron 70-200mm f/2.8, at 200mm, operated at f/3.5

Mount: Sky-Watcher HEQ5, tracking, controlled with EQASCOM, unguided

Exposure Detail: 44x120s (total 88min)

*Revision -B- features more star shrinking and contrast adjustment to better show the dust detail. Not perfect at 100% though. Which do you prefer?*

Comments

Revisions

    Corona Australis and its Molecular Cloud, Gabriel R. Santos (grsotnas)
    Original
  • Final
    Corona Australis and its Molecular Cloud, Gabriel R. Santos (grsotnas)
    B

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Corona Australis and its Molecular Cloud, Gabriel R. Santos (grsotnas)