20220305 - Sh2-274 GEM - Medusa Nebula - A sight turning us into stone
What’s in the picture(s) -
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medusa_NebulaQuote: “The
Medusa Nebula is a
planetary nebula in the constellation of
Gemini. It is also known as
Abell 21 and
Sharpless 2-274. It was originally discovered in 1955 by
University of California, Los Angeles astronomer
George O. Abell, who classified it as an old planetary nebula. Until the early 1970s, the nebula was thought to be a
supernova remnant. With the computation of expansion velocities and the thermal character of the radio emission, Soviet astronomers in 1971 concluded that it was most likely a planetary nebula. As the nebula is so large, its surface brightness is very low, with surface magnitudes of between +15.99 and +25 reported”
What was the experience
Last weeks run of clear nights has allowed me to focus on longer integration times. Something especially required for one of the faint objects I wanted to capture: The Medusa Nebula
With nearly 12hours of integration time, the faint outflow from Medusa’s snake-head is gradually becoming visible, as well as quite some detail in the ‘snakes’ themselves. Processed as a quirky combination of an SHO and HOO palette, using the fornaxx formula. As I’m capturing in high resolution, I’m also supplying a crop 😏(still 3k x 2k) that allows a better view of the detail.
Quite happy with the outcome of this faint and obscure object … 😎
How it was done
Scope: TS140 APO (FL 910mm)
Mount: CEM70G
Camera: ASI2600MM Pro
Photons: 20220227/0304-05 SHO 24x 79x 39x - 11:50
Processing: PixInsight (Mac)
Astrobin:
What have I learned from this
It’s always difficult to assess up-front how much minimum integration time would be required for bringing out the faint nebula and details. With 12 hours on a f6.5 scope, I had hoped that would’ve been enough … but a +25 magnitude nebula might just need that small bit of extra time …
Clear Skies everybody! 🤩✨🔭
Follow me @astrowaut
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