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Image of the day 05/02/2024

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    The Trifid Nebula - an LRGB image, Niall MacNeill
      The Trifid Nebula - an LRGB image, Niall MacNeill

      The Trifid Nebula - an LRGB image

      Image of the day 05/02/2024

      Getting plate-solving status, please wait...
        The Trifid Nebula - an LRGB image, Niall MacNeill
          The Trifid Nebula - an LRGB image, Niall MacNeill

          The Trifid Nebula - an LRGB image

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          Description

          I had to return to M20, the Trifid Nebula, with the C11 instead of the C14 as used previously. The wider FOV from the C11 versus the C14 makes for a more interesting image in my view. This is a purely LRGB (colour) image and has no Ha enhancement, unlike the approach I took back in 2021 with the C14. Revision B shows the comparison and frankly I much prefer this more recent image in terms of the more natural colours and the interesting nebula detail captured a bit further out from the centre of the action, especially the dark molecular cloud to the right. Suprisingly, despite the somewhat larger image scale the resolution in the more recent image with the C11 is superior. Perhaps the seeing was better. A comparison of the Herbig-Haro object H399, which sticks out like a light sabre, up and to the left from the dome of gas, below and left of centre near the trisecting dust tendrils, clearly shows the resolution difference.

          This is rightly recognised as one of the most beautiful objects in all of the night sky. 

          From Wikipedia(abridged).....“The Trifid Nebula (catalogued as Messier 20 or M20 and as NGC 6514) is an H II region in the north-west of Sagittarius in a star-forming region in the Milky Way's Scutum–Centaurus Arm. It was discovered by Charles Messier on June 5, 1764. Its name means 'three-lobe'. The object is an unusual combination of an open cluster of stars, an emission nebula (the relatively dense, reddish-pink portion), a reflection nebula (the mainly NNE blue portion), and a dark nebula (the apparent 'gaps' in the former that cause the trifurcated appearance, also designated Barnard 85). 
          The Trifid Nebula was the subject of an investigation by astronomers using the Hubble Space Telescope in 1997, using filters that isolate emission from hydrogen atoms, ionized sulphur atoms, and doubly ionized oxygen atoms. The images were combined into a false-colour composite picture to suggest how the nebula might look to the eye.
          The close-up images show a dense cloud of dust and gas, which is a stellar nursery full of embryonic stars. This cloud is about 8 ly away from the nebula's central star. A stellar jet protrudes from the head of the cloud and is about 0.75 ly long and it is a Herbig-Haro jet (HH399). The jet's source is a young stellar object deep within the cloud. Jets are the exhaust gasses of star formation and radiation from the nebula's central star makes the jet glow.
          The images also showed a finger-like stalk to the right of the jet. It points from the head of the dense cloud directly toward the star that powers the Trifid nebula. This stalk is a prominent example of evaporating gaseous globules, or 'EGGs'. The stalk has survived because its tip is a knot of gas that is dense enough to resist being eaten away by the powerful radiation from the star.
          It is about 4100 ly from Earth. Its apparent magnitude is 6.3.” 

          Revision C which is accessible via the mouseover shows the detail of the Haro-Harbig object HH399 and the central area of the trifurcation. The central stars are extremely bright and the 100e- well depth of the SBIG 16803 is great for preventing these being blown out in the 10 minute exposures. Nevertheless I had to utilise a HDR approach in the processing to avoid clipping them.

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          Revisions

          • Final
            The Trifid Nebula - an LRGB image, Niall MacNeill
            Original
            The Trifid Nebula - an LRGB image, Niall MacNeill
            B
            The Trifid Nebula - an LRGB image, Niall MacNeill
            C

          B

          Description: A comparison: 2024 C11 LRGB vs 2021 C14 HaRGB

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          C

          Description: Zoomed in to show central emission nebula, trifurcation and the Harbig-Haro object HH399

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          The Trifid Nebula - an LRGB image, Niall MacNeill