Celestial hemisphere:  Northern  ·  Constellation: Lacerta (Lac)  ·  Contains:  10 Lac  ·  12 Lac  ·  8 Lac  ·  HD212212  ·  HD212469  ·  HD212978  ·  HD213191  ·  HD213371  ·  HD213391  ·  HD213421  ·  HD213472  ·  HD213520  ·  HD213659  ·  HD213660  ·  HD213786  ·  HD213801  ·  HD213835  ·  HD213918  ·  HD213976  ·  HD214022  ·  HD214040  ·  HD214243  ·  HD214263  ·  HD214283  ·  HD214432  ·  HD214433  ·  HD214489  ·  HD214524  ·  HD214652  ·  HD214680  ·  And 31 more.
Getting plate-solving status, please wait...
The Lacerta OB1 Association, Gecko Nebula, and a strange Oiii object, Bray Falls
Powered byPixInsight

The Lacerta OB1 Association, Gecko Nebula, and a strange Oiii object

Getting plate-solving status, please wait...
The Lacerta OB1 Association, Gecko Nebula, and a strange Oiii object, Bray Falls
Powered byPixInsight

The Lacerta OB1 Association, Gecko Nebula, and a strange Oiii object

Equipment

Loading...

Acquisition details

Loading...

Description

The Laceta OB1 association or "Lacerta Nebula" is a large complex Hii region in the constellation of Lacerta. Hot newborn stars ionize the surrounding area to create this extremely bright Hii object. The nebula is interwoven with interesting dust/dark nebulae, along with a ton of interesting background galaxies. Hii regions often have a fair amount of Oiii emission, I haven't seen this object captured with Oiii before, so I decided to give it a whirl! 

A couple of interesting things presented themselves, firstly there is a LOT of Oiii inside the lacerta nebula. It forms a strong 'wall' shape along the brightest star in the frame, and also forms an interesting U shape counter to the wall. Not sure what causes this but it would be helpful to collect a lot more data to reveal more details. I also bumped into a strange Oiii object embedded on one of the bright H-alpha ridges.
AGN.jpg

This object has no likely central star such as a white dwarf or hot subdwarf, the only potential explanation I have for this object (which might be a stretch) is the presence of a nearby AGN galaxy named UGC 12064. AGN nebula are known to contain large proportions of Oiii emission, for example Hanny's Voorwerp. But as you can see, these objects are usually more aligned with the galaxy itself and are typically quite close to their parent galaxies. Hence why I say it might be a stretch... but for now this is my best guess. A deeper Oiii image would help to answer the question.

For now, call it OO-3 (oxygen object 3)! 

I hope you all enjoy the image!

EDIT: 

Did a bit more research on the radio envelope of UGC 12064 and it looks like the nebula reasonable falls inside the radio emission region:
rad1.jpg

Comments

Sky plot

Sky plot

Histogram

The Lacerta OB1 Association, Gecko Nebula, and a strange Oiii object, Bray Falls