I was blessed with another 4 descent hours, so I took advantage of it to take this widefield view in Ha which displays several unique-looking objects. The most notable structures being the so-called Monkey Head and Jellyfish Nebulae which many have imaged. I have done the Monkey Head nebula up close in the past, but this is my first time taking a crack at the Jellyfish nebula.
The
Monkey Head Nebula (Sh2-252[i]) [/i]is a HII mission nebula located in the constellation Orion and is associated with the open star cluster NGC 2175. It is thought to be located about 6,400 light-years away from Earth. The
Jellyfish Nebula (Sh2-248) is a galactic supernova remnant in the constellation Gemini. Its distance is roughly 5,000 light years from Earth.
Sh2-247 is a round diffuse nebula, which according to one study, contains 37 thousand solar masses of gas and dust at a distance of 2200 pc, and appears to be physically connected through CO filaments with Sh 2-252. Thus, it may not be out on an island as it appears to be in the image. I must confess that the multiple designations in this area of sky, and subregions within each area, can be quite confusing. Some areas seem to have been well dissected, given specific designations, while others have not.
It is unfortunate that I will not be able to get a beautiful palette of this region for now; however, you can see a wonderful display of this area in both SHO & HOO by my friend, Uwe Deutermann (
here).
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