IC2118 (Witch Head Nebula) + Rigel (blue supergiant star) (Ben Hayes)

Celestial hemisphere: Southern · Constellation: Eridanus (Eri) · Contains: 19 Ori) · 19 bet Ori · 20 Ori · 20 tau Ori · 65 Eri) · 65 psi Eri · 69 Eri) · 69 lam Eri · Algebar (β Ori · HD31625 · HD31740 · HD31820 · HD31821 · HD31921 · HD31935 · HD31936 · HD32007 · HD32043 · HD32057 · HD32074 · HD32099 · HD32116 · HD32147 · HD32192 · HD32239 · HD32250 · HD32394 · HD32395 · HD32432 · HD32466 · And 52 more.

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IC2118 (Witch Head Nebula) + Rigel (blue supergiant star)

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IC2118 (Witch Head Nebula) + Rigel (blue supergiant star)

It was the perfect winter night — clear skies, cold air, and no moon — so I attached an old Nikon 180mm lens to a cooled color camera (ASI294MC), placed them on an old Celestron AVX mount, and pointed the rig to the left leg of Orion. Three and a half hours later, after stacking 66 light frames taken at aperture f/4.0 and exposure 180s, this image appeared. I hardly did any post-processing to the preliminary image, besides stretching it to nonlinear state, adjusting the black point of the histogram, and removing some noise. Rigel really is that blue.

Light from the blue supergiant reflects off the dust of the Witch Head Nebula. A decent amount of Oiii is faintly visible in the background, bringing warmth and color in this cold, dusty region of the night sky.

Rigel dominates the scene, which is what I intended, hoping the diffraction spikes of the Nikkor len’s iris blades would give it the star burst feeling it deserves. Rigel is brightest star in the constellation Orion (the Hunter) and expected to end in a supernova one day. A variable Alpha Cygni-type star, it shines 47,000 times brighter than our sun. It’s impressive to think about that.

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Description: Same as Revision A (original), but without the acquisition details.

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Status	Advanced success
Started	...
Astrometry.net job	8225668
PixInsight job	4V444VQ6E29G8IL93KVEQ0OFAFLNP08A
PixInsight queue size	n/a
PixInsight stage	TASK_LOG

RA (center)	05h07m24s.97
RA (top/left)	04h55m15s.47
RA (top/right)	05h16m17s.32
RA (bottom/right)	05h19m28s.36
RA (bottom/left)	04h58m36s.47

Dec (center)	-07°49′24″.1
Dec (top/left)	-09°02′35″.3
Dec (top/right)	-10°12′55″.8
Dec (bottom/right)	-06°34′35″.3
Dec (bottom/left)	-05°25′05″.2

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IC2118 (Witch Head Nebula) + Rigel (blue supergiant star)

IC2118 (Witch Head Nebula) + Rigel (blue supergiant star)

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IC2118 (Witch Head Nebula) + Rigel (blue supergiant star)

IC2118 (Witch Head Nebula) + Rigel (blue supergiant star)

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