Celestial hemisphere:  Northern  ·  Constellation: Vulpecula (Vul)  ·  Contains:  Extremely wide field
Getting plate-solving status, please wait...
Vulupecula Milky Way, Gabriel R. Santos (grsotnas)
Powered byPixInsight

Vulupecula Milky Way

Getting plate-solving status, please wait...
Vulupecula Milky Way, Gabriel R. Santos (grsotnas)
Powered byPixInsight

Vulupecula Milky Way

Equipment

Loading...

Acquisition details

Loading...

Description

This wide field on the constellation Vulupecula is a journey through the Milky Way. The starry field is adorned by dark and emission nebulae, and a beautiful open cluster. Or is it? Collinder 339 (also known as The Coat Hanger) was first described by Persian astronomer Al Sufi, around 964. Much later, 1931, Swedish Per Collinder listed the Coathanger in his catalog of open clusters. It was considered a cluster for most of 20th century, but studies have shown that only 6 of its stars are in a cluster. Collinder 339 is actually not an open cluster as it appears, but an asterism. It is indeed mostly a random grouping of stars! [1]

Other interesting objects are in the field: the Loch Ness Monster Nebula. It is a dark nebula just right of center. The bright reflection nebula in blue in its center is Vdb 126, and the surrounding dark nebulosity is listed on LDN catalogue. The dark region is also catalogued as LDN 772. Just left of the Monster, is another dark nebula, LDN 778. [2]

The emission nebula in the left side of the frame is NGC 6823 and 6820 , an open cluster with associated emission nebula. The center of the open cluster, visible on the upper left, formed only about two million years ago and is dominated in brightness by a host of bright young blue stars. Near the center are “pillars” of dark nebulosity, similarly to M16, best seen in pictures with greater resolution, but hinted in this wide field. NGC 6823 is ~ 50 light years across, about 6000 light years away. The entire nebulous region is also catalogued as Sh2-86, an HII region part of Vul OB1 association.

_____________________________________________

This image started on August 11th. 15 exposures were taken that day. In the next New Moon, on September 8, I wanted to double its exposure to greatly enhance SNR. However, guiding problems rendered almost all subs unusable. Only 2 subs survived, because I simply stopped guiding in order to capture something! Not a problem since my FOV is very large, and only the tracking is enough to get round stars for 2min at 135mm FL. The result was somewhat below what I expected, by I present it, nonetheless. This beautiful field is rarely imaged by fellow astrophotographers, and most images online were captured from Northern latitudes. Here I present my quick view on this beautiful field.

Constructive criticism, comments and suggestions are more than welcome in the comments section – including on the new labelling. Thank you for taking your time to look at this image.

Date and Time: August 11 and September 08, 2018; ~21h [local UTC-3 time]

Location: MG, Brazil. Rural Skies (Bortle 3-4, SQM ~21.4*calculated)

Camera: Canon EOS T5 (modded), at ISO 800

Lens: Samyang 135mm f/2.0, operated at f/2.4

Mount: Sky-Watcher HEQ5, tracking, guided

Guiding: Starguider 50mm Guidescope + ASI120mm + PHD2; ~2”

Exposure Detail: 17x120s. Total 34 minutes

[1] Wikipedia, APOD; [2] astropix.com; Gary Imm astrobin image; [3] APOD, galaxymap.org/cat/view/sharpless/86

Comments

Sky plot

Sky plot

Histogram

Vulupecula Milky Way, Gabriel R. Santos (grsotnas)

In these public groups

Cloudy Nights