Medusa Nebula (SH2-274) (Rodney Watters)

Celestial hemisphere: Northern · Constellation: Gemini (Gem) · Contains: NGC 2395

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Medusa Nebula (SH2-274)

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Medusa Nebula (SH2-274)

Planetary nebulae (PNs) are fascinating objects resulting the expulsion of gas emanating from a dying star. This gas is typically comprised of Hydrogen and Oxygen that has been ionised which will emit light at specific wavelengths. The name planetary nebula was mistakenly applied in the early days of astronomy science as they were mistaken for gas giant planets and whilst this confusion has been sorted, the name has stuck. This PN is so named due to the filaments of gas that are emerging from the object making for a likeness to the mythical Medusa and the myriad collection of snakes that Medusa has instead of hair. It may take a little imagination to see this but it is a great story all the same.

PNs are typically rather tiny being in the order of arc seconds to a few arc minutes in size and normally too small for the 1.5d FOV of my Tak TSA120. SH2-274 however is reasonably sized at 8 arc minutes and makes for a nice combination with the open cluster NGC 2395 in the same field. With this composition it makes it appear as if the PN is shooting off into the corner leaving a trail of stars behind it. The PN is located in the constellation of Gemini at a distance of 1,500 light years.

Processing for this image was completed in Pixinsight with the broad steps being to process the Ha and OIII masters separately, combine them into a colour (starless) image and then copy in the RGB stars using the RC Astro Star Exterminator process.

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	Distinct awarded users	Total awarded images
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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
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Distribution of data sources

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	Image of the day	Top pick	Top pick nominations	Total submitted
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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.

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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	Basic success
Started	...
Astrometry.net job	7851212
PixInsight job	n/a
PixInsight queue size	n/a
PixInsight stage	n/a

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Medusa Nebula (SH2-274)

Medusa Nebula (SH2-274)

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Medusa Nebula (SH2-274)

Medusa Nebula (SH2-274)

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