IC 2118 Witches Head Nebula (nerdybeardo)

Celestial hemisphere: Southern · Constellation: Eridanus (Eri) · Contains: 65 psi Eri · IC 2118 · IC 398 · LBN 959 · NGC 1720 · NGC 1726 · NGC 1752 · NGC 1797 · NGC 1799 · NGC 1909 · PK205-26.1 · The star ψEri · Witch Head nebula · the Witch Head Nebula

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IC 2118 Witches Head Nebula

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IC 2118 Witches Head Nebula

The "Witches Head" nebula (IC 2118) is very interesting, and within it a lesson for all of us. The Witches head is near the star Rigel which is a very bright star in the constellation Orion. It is thought to be either a supernova remnant or a gas cloud illuminated by Rigel. This nebula is more faint than I expected, and it took over 9 hours of exposure using a one shot color camera to get this, fighting through the clouds of winter.

But the most interesting thing about it is not the nebula. It is the galaxies that you will get to see throughout the image. You can see a small cluster of them in the upper right hand corner. Small but detailed, and from dark skies they have some beautiful colors to them.

The term "Witches head" conjures up certain stereotypical imagery in your mind I'm sure. But maybe this is also a reminder that when you look hard enough you can always find something beautiful even in places where you would not think to look for them or expect to find them.

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Distribution of astrophotographers

This table shows the number of distinct astrophotographers who have been assigned and IOTD/TP award compared to the total number of images awarded.
	Distinct awarded users	Total awarded images
Image of the day
Top picks
Top pick nominations

Distribution of subject types

This table shows the distribution of awards per subject type, compared to the popularity of images of that subject type.
	Image of the day	Top pick	Top pick nominations	Total submitted
Deep sky
Solar system
Extremely wide field
Star trails
Northern lights
Noctilucent clouds
Landscape

Distribution of data sources

This table shows the distribution of awards per data source, compared to the popularity of images acquired from that data source.
	Image of the day	Top pick	Top pick nominations	Total submitted
Backyard
Traveller
Own remote observatory
Amateur hosting facility
Public amaeteur data
Professional, scientific grade data
Mix of multiple sources
Other
Unknown

The “AstroBin Image of the Day and Top Picks”, or IOTD/TP, is a long-running system to promote beautiful, interesting, peculiar, or otherwise amazing astrophotographs, with a focus on technical excellence. Learn more.

Submitted The date and time when you submitted this image for IOTD/TP consideration.	...
Views by Submitters (available since September 19th, 2023) Every image is assigned to 50% of available Submitters. In the event that at least 80% of them don't view the image before its time in the IOTD/TP process expires, it's assigned to the other 50% of Submitters and the process begins anew.
Promotions by Submitters When 3 distinct Submitters promote the image, it moves on to the next stage of the process: evaluation for Top Pick status. This requirement, in addition to anonymization of images and distribution to only a subset of them, prevents biases and ensures that the best images are selected.
Promotions by Reviewers When 3 distinct Reviewers promote the image, it moves on to the next stage of the process: evaluation for IOTD status.
Early dismissal Staff members have a lot of images to inspect on a daily basis, and they can dismiss images if they believe they don't meet the requirements for IOTD/TP selection. If an image is dismissed 5 times, it's removed from the process. This streamlines the process and ensures that any bias present in promotions could be overruled by other staff members.

Status	Advanced success
Started	...
Astrometry.net job	5415501
PixInsight job	C10B2W454HG7YHB028VF89JJTES4SGS8
PixInsight queue size	n/a
PixInsight stage	TASK_LOG

RA (center)	05h04m32s.62
RA (top/left)	04h57m56s.78
RA (top/right)	05h11m09s.50
RA (bottom/right)	05h11m07s.19
RA (bottom/left)	04h57m58s.18

Dec (center)	-07°10′19″.2
Dec (top/left)	-08°14′41″.6
Dec (top/right)	-08°14′46″.3
Dec (bottom/right)	-06°05′28″.3
Dec (bottom/left)	-06°05′28″.4

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IC 2118 Witches Head Nebula

IC 2118 Witches Head Nebula

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Image Index:

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IC 2118 Witches Head Nebula

IC 2118 Witches Head Nebula

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