Celestial hemisphere:  Northern  ·  Constellation: Perseus (Per)  ·  Contains:  46 ksi Per  ·  California Nebula  ·  IC 2005  ·  LBN 752  ·  LBN 756  ·  LDN 1462  ·  LDN 1463  ·  LDN 1464  ·  LDN 1469  ·  Menkib  ·  NGC 1499  ·  Sh2-220  ·  The star ξPer
NGC1499 (California nebula) in RGB+Ha, Anders Johannesson
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NGC1499 (California nebula) in RGB+Ha

NGC1499 (California nebula) in RGB+Ha, Anders Johannesson
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NGC1499 (California nebula) in RGB+Ha

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Description

This is the well known HII region in Perseus that is called the California nebula due to its shape. It consists mostly of Hydrogen gas that has been excited by the bright star Menkib, the brightest star in this image located just under the nebula.

In the visible, light is coming mostly in the H-alpha (red) and the H-beta (blue) spectral lines of Hydrogen. In my R, G and B images I can see clear signal in R and in B only,  most likely due to the above. So, I decided to only image in H-alpha + RGB this time, since I do not have any H-beta filter.

While doing the RGB H-alpha combination, I tried to do it in a way that would not destroy the beatiful structures visible in H-alpha. H-alpha is really just a B/W signal, but to give it a bit of drama I decided to do some extra processing. What I did was to reduce the stars a bit so that they don't dominate and then use the color channels to lift out the beautiful details of the H-alpha signal. I hope you like it.

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  • NGC1499 (California nebula) in RGB+Ha, Anders Johannesson
    Original
  • Final
    NGC1499 (California nebula) in RGB+Ha, Anders Johannesson
    B

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NGC1499 (California nebula) in RGB+Ha, Anders Johannesson

In these public groups

"Nordish by nature"

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Narrowband