Celestial hemisphere:  Northern  ·  Constellation: Lacerta (Lac)  ·  Contains:  HD213191  ·  HD213391  ·  HD213421  ·  HD213472  ·  HD213659  ·  HD213835  ·  HD213976  ·  HD214022  ·  HD214040  ·  HD214243  ·  HD214283  ·  HD214524  ·  LBN 437  ·  LBN 442
LBN 437 with some Sharpless 126, James E.
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LBN 437 with some Sharpless 126

LBN 437 with some Sharpless 126, James E.
Powered byPixInsight

LBN 437 with some Sharpless 126

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Description

This image shows the molecular cloud LBN 437 intermixed with the much larger (several degrees in diameter) Sharpless 126 Ha emission nebula in Lacerta.  LBN 437 is also known as the Gecko Nebula while Sharpless 126 has been called the Stellar or Star Funnel.  It is estimated to be about 1500 light years away but there have been multiple distance estimations based on multiple methods.  The most prominent feature of NGC 437 is a symmetrical reflection nebula - GN 22.32.5 (see revision cropped image) - associated with the Herbig Ae/Be star V0375 Lacertae and is host to a bipolar jet. A Herbig Ae/Be star is a pre-main sequence star - a young (less than 10 million years old) star of spectral type A or B that is still embedded in gas-dust envelopes and approaching the main sequence (although not burning hydrogen in their center).  Professional observations have detected multiple small Herbig-Haro objects within LBN 437. 

This nebula lies within a dense starfield making processing difficult without creating starless images. Ha in this area does not have any structural detail while Lum and RGB in LBN 437 show significant cloud-like details similar to a nebula such as the Witch Head Nebula in Orion.  See revisions for supporting images.  I was surprised at the significant number of small background galaxies in the image after applying Russell Croman's StarXTerminator program in PixInsight.

Imaged over several nights:  Jul 26-27; Aug 1, 9 and 11, 2023.

Comments

Revisions

  • Final
    LBN 437 with some Sharpless 126, James E.
    Original
  • LBN 437 with some Sharpless 126, James E.
    B
  • LBN 437 with some Sharpless 126, James E.
    C
  • LBN 437 with some Sharpless 126, James E.
    D
  • LBN 437 with some Sharpless 126, James E.
    E
  • LBN 437 with some Sharpless 126, James E.
    F

B

Description: Lum with stars_7.5 hours

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C

Description: Lum_starless_7.5 hours_denoised

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D

Description: RGB_starless_2 hours each_denoised

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E

Description: Ha_starless_12 hours_denoised

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F

Description: Reflection nebula - GN 22.32.5

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LBN 437 with some Sharpless 126, James E.