Celestial hemisphere:  Northern  ·  Constellation: Lacerta (Lac)
Sh2-126 in Lacerta, Walter Koprolin
Sh2-126 in Lacerta
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Sh2-126 in Lacerta, Walter Koprolin
Sh2-126 in Lacerta
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Description

This is a unique region in southern Lacerta where a bluish-green molecular cloud (LBN 437) is superimposed on a large red emission nebula (Sh2-126) and forms a "stellar funnel" which includes a symmetrical reflection nebula!

I started taking this exposure series during my astrophoto expedition high up into the Austrian Alps in September 2020 and finished it in my light-polluted backyard two month later. The total exposure time adds up to 30 hours: 9 hours under dark mountain skies for broadband color, 10 hours for narrowband Hα in my backyard, and 11 hours for narrowband [OIII], also in my backyard. All of the images were taken with the 4.9" Wright-Newtonian. I used a single-shot color camera for broadband exposures and a monochrome camera for the narrow-band exposures.

Processing steps, starting with the broadband color exposures: File selection and bias/dark/flat calibration, star alignment and image integration, background flattening, color calibration, noise reduction, non-linearization, mixing with tone-mapped Hα/[OIII] narrow-band color image, color correction, star size reduction, local contrast enhancement.

The color images taken in the mountains were of much better depth than the narrow-band images taken in my backyard, but the camera I used was not very sensitive to Hα, so I had to add mainly Hα from the narrow-band exposures. Processing the Hα and especially the [OIII] images was tough, mainly due to the uneven city sky gradients.

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Sh2-126 in Lacerta, Walter Koprolin