Wolf-Rayet 134 was one target that Steve and I had in mind to test the sensitivity of our new QHY268M when we switched cameras in August. We had imaged it before with both the wide field FSQ106/QSI683 and high resolution TEC140/QSI690 but were never properly satisfied that we had captured the fainter circular outer filaments. It was very satisfying to see that with modest integration we have improved our capture.

An extract from the Wikipedia entry: "WR 134 is a variableWolf-Rayet star located around 6,000 light years away from Earth in the constellation of Cygnus, surrounded by a faint bubble nebula blown by the intense radiation and fast wind from the star. It is five times the radius of the sun, but due to a temperature over 63,000 K it is 400,000 times as luminous as the Sun. WR 134 was one of three stars in Cygnus observed in 1867 to have unusual spectra consisting of intense emission lines rather than the more normal continuum and absorption lines. These were the first members of the class of stars that came to be called Wolf-Rayet stars (WR stars) after Charles Wolf and Georges Rayet who discovered their unusual appearance.[7] It is a member of the nitrogen sequence of WR stars, while the other two (WR 135 and WR 137) are both members of the carbon sequence that also have OB companions. WR 134 has a spectrum with NIII and NIV emission between two and five times stronger than NV, leading to the assignment of a WN6 spectral type. The spectrum also shows strong HeII emission and weaker lines of HeI and CIV."

I have uploaded the Starless version, with, I think, the central star remaining intact, as the final presentation in order to better see the emission filaments.  This version is stretched harder than my norm to enhance the faint OIII emissions, and as a consequence the Ha is somewhat over-processed including a few artefacts from star removal.  The full HOO/RGB image is also presented to to place the image in its complete context.

Data acquisition: Barry Wilson & Steve Milne
Processing: Barry Wilson