Celestial hemisphere:  Northern  ·  Constellation: Cygnus (Cyg)
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Sharpless 101 (Sh2-101), Tulip Nebula, Steve Robbins
Sharpless 101 (Sh2-101), Tulip Nebula
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Sharpless 101 (Sh2-101), Tulip Nebula

Revision title: Improved sharpening, noise reduction, star management, color adjustment

Getting plate-solving status, please wait...
Sharpless 101 (Sh2-101), Tulip Nebula, Steve Robbins
Sharpless 101 (Sh2-101), Tulip Nebula
Powered byPixInsight

Sharpless 101 (Sh2-101), Tulip Nebula

Revision title: Improved sharpening, noise reduction, star management, color adjustment

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Description

At a distance of about 8,000ly in the constellation Cygnus, the emission nebula Sharpless 101 was over looked by catalogers until 1959 when Stewart Sharpless added it to his catalogue of nebula.  It spans 70ly across and is energized by young highly luminous stars including ninth magnitude HDE 227018 just above and to the right of the brightest star in the blue part of the image.  The image also includes the neighboring hydrogen and sulfur gases to the left creating the gold and lighter tones.  The blue in the image is from the OIII emissions.  These emissions are caused by electrons changing orbitals within the electron cloud of an atom that are "forbidden" by a transition rule but can occur at low rates in comparison to non-forbidden transitions.  In astronomy, doubly ionized oxygen is the ion O2+ (O III in spectroscopic notation). Its emission forbidden lines are in the visible spectrum and fall primarily at the wavelength 500.7 nm, and secondarily at 495.9 nm.  The Astronomik OIII filter used captures a bandwidth covering both of these wavelengths.  

Forbidden emission lines have been observed in extremely low-density gases, either in space or in the extreme upper atmosphere of the Earth. In space environments, densities may be only a few atoms per cubic centimeter, making atomic collisions unlikely and as such leaving spontaneous electron transitions to de-excite the atom the only viable mechanism. Under such conditions, once an atom or molecule has been excited for any reason into a meta-stable state, then it is almost certain to decay by emitting a forbidden-line photon. Since meta-stable states are rather common, forbidden transitions account for a significant percentage of the photons emitted by the ultra-low density gas in space. 

The image includes Ha, OIII, and SII data combined in the Hubble SHO pallet, as well as RGB stars.

Ha 17X660
SII  10X660
OIII  10X660
R 14X120
G 12X120
B 9X150

Total Integration 10.6hrs

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  • Sharpless 101 (Sh2-101), Tulip Nebula, Steve Robbins
    Original
  • Final
    Sharpless 101 (Sh2-101), Tulip Nebula, Steve Robbins
    B

B

Title: Improved sharpening, noise reduction, star management, color adjustment

Description: Update after more processing experience.

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Sharpless 101 (Sh2-101), Tulip Nebula, Steve Robbins