Celestial hemisphere:  Southern  ·  Constellation: Scorpius (Sco)  ·  Contains:  Girtab (θ Sco)  ·  NGC 6388  ·  The star Sargas  ·  The star ι Ara  ·  The star σ Ara
RCW 114 the Jiggery-Pokery Planetary Nebula, Alex Woronow

RCW 114 the Jiggery-Pokery Planetary Nebula

RCW 114 the Jiggery-Pokery Planetary Nebula, Alex Woronow

RCW 114 the Jiggery-Pokery Planetary Nebula

Equipment

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Acquisition details

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Description

RCW 114 the Jiggery-Pokery Planetary Nebula

OTA:……………….FSQ 106ED f/3.6
Camera:………….FLI PL16803
Observatory:…. Telescope Live, Aus2

EXPOSURES:                
…H: 13 x 600        
…S: 17 x 600        
…O: 13 x 600        
Total exposure    7.1 hours

Image Width: 5.5 degrees
Processed by Alex Woronow (2022) using PixInsight, SWT, Topaz, 3DLut

This faint planetary nebula lies within and behind a dense star field, making it a considerable challenge to process. Thanks to StarNet2, we can remove most of the stars to work just on the nebula, as was done here. The SHO narrowband stacks were mapped to RGB using a “true-color” mapping, then color-calibrated and stretched, at which point the stars were removed and post-processed largely in Topaz.

To my eye, the star-filled OIII image looked virtually nebula-free, but it clearly wasn’t. I used OIII and Ha to produce a pseudo-L channel and mixed it with the L extracted from the SHO image. Ha alone did not reveal as much nebula presence or detail as did Ha and OIII together. OIII and Ha become excited in different parts of the nebula, making them somewhat independent indicators of the nebula’s presents and shockwave dynamics.

Ha is most highly activated in regions of high electron density, whereas OIII is more activated in regions of high electron temperatures. Ha should be active in front of a a bow shocks and OIII within the shock wave. So, together they map out the shock waves as well as the less active nebular gasses and provide some structures to the picture. At least, that’s roughly what I’m hoping.

Alex

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