IC 2118 (Gary Imm)

IC 2118

Note - I have included this image as the object in the vdB catalog for vdB 36. vdB 36 is actually shown as the nearby very bright star Rigel, which is the source of the reflected light. This image shows the reflection nebula (IC 2118) and not the source light.

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This object, IC 2118, is a faint reflection nebula located 900 light years away in the constellation of Eridanus. It is a large dust cloud illuminated by the reflected light of the massive nearby star Rigel off of the top of the image in Orion, as evidenced by the fact that the heads of the clouds point up. Rigel is shown relative to the image FOV in the Astrobin sky plot above.

IC 2118 is nicknamed the Witchhead Nebula. The witch head is the brightest part of the nebula, in the right half of this image. The witch head is facing up, with chin to the right, in this image where north is to the right.

The 50 light year long cloud has a slightly bluish cast primarily because dust grains reflect blue light more efficiently than red, but also because of Rigel's strong blue color. Although Rigel is as far from the dust cloud as Pluto is from our sun, it is able to illuminate the cloud because its luminosity is over 100,000 times that of the Sun. As is to be expected, astronomers have found evidence that star formation is occurring in this cloud.

Numerous galaxies are visible throughout the image in the background, many of which are noted on the mouseover.

This image is a massive mess and I deleted it numerous times before finally deciding to post it. Bouncing off of the edges of he RASA's 4 element internal lens group, Rigel generated bright arc reflections through all of the subs of this two frame mosaic. In the process of reducing and hiding those artifacts through increased contrast and other means, I destroyed much of the lovely faintest nebulosity, particularly along the nebula edges and in the sky background. I think the resulting image looks OK but does not have the nebulosity depth that it should.

Celestron RASA
ASI 6200 MM Pro
CMOS Imagers
Cloudy Nights
Texas Astronomy
RASA Images

100 of My Favorite images
Orphaned Beauties Catalog (Complete)
Reflection Nebulae
vdB Catalog (124/159)

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Status	Advanced success
Started	...
Astrometry.net job	7059364
PixInsight job	2D5QXY9EAHX9ITJX9CLRC4VS6EH5Y76W
PixInsight queue size	n/a
PixInsight stage	TASK_LOG

RA (center)	05h02m58s.22
RA (top/left)	05h08m49s.21
RA (top/right)	05h09m08s.20
RA (bottom/right)	04h57m10s.86
RA (bottom/left)	04h56m44s.91

Dec (center)	-07°54′30″.7
Dec (top/left)	-09°55′08″.2
Dec (top/right)	-05°57′47″.8
Dec (bottom/right)	-05°53′36″.1
Dec (bottom/left)	-09°50′51″.6

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