IC 2118 - The Witch Head Nebula or Godzilla, the terrible - HaRGB (Rainer Raupach)

Celestial hemisphere: Southern · Constellation: Eridanus (Eri) · Contains: 65 Eri) · 65 psi Eri · 69 Eri) · 69 lam Eri · IC 2118 · LBN 959 · NGC 1752 · NGC 1797 · NGC 1799 · NGC 1909 · PGC 1004963 · PGC 1006817 · PGC 1007906 · PGC 1011379 · PGC 1012398 · PGC 1013016 · PGC 1013077 · PGC 1013599 · PGC 1023022 · PGC 1025093 · PGC 1026456 · PGC 1026633 · PGC 1029803 · PGC 1031174 · PGC 1032937 · PGC 1033231 · PGC 1033911 · PGC 1034111 · PGC 1034306 · PGC 1034437 · And 37 more.

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IC 2118 - The Witch Head Nebula or Godzilla, the terrible - HaRGB

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IC 2118 - The Witch Head Nebula or Godzilla, the terrible - HaRGB

Primarily, the light from the B8-type star Rigel is being reflected here, appearing bluer relative to our Sun. However, the reflection nebula is partially even bluer than the light emitted by Rigel itself. This phenomenon is attributed to the very small particle size within the molecular cloud, causing shorter wavelengths of light to be scattered (and hence reflected) more strongly than longer wavelengths due to Rayleigh scattering. This type of elastic scattering of electromagnetic radiation occurs when the size of the scattering particles is smaller than the wavelength. The same effect also explains - some may recall from their physics classes 😉 - the blue color of the daytime sky. Particularly beautiful is the fine color gradient from vivid blue to a more neutral gray in the south-to-north direction of the nebula. In addition to reflection, hydrogen is also ionized, leading to H-alpha emission. This generates bright rims, creating a striking color contrast with the reflection.

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Distribution of astrophotographers

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	Distinct awarded users	Total awarded images
Image of the day
Top picks
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Distribution of subject types

This table shows the distribution of awards per subject type, compared to the popularity of images of that subject type.
	Image of the day	Top pick	Top pick nominations	Total submitted
Deep sky
Solar system
Extremely wide field
Star trails
Northern lights
Noctilucent clouds
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Distribution of data sources

This table shows the distribution of awards per data source, compared to the popularity of images acquired from that data source.
	Image of the day	Top pick	Top pick nominations	Total submitted
Backyard
Traveller
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Amateur hosting facility
Public amaeteur data
Professional, scientific grade data
Mix of multiple sources
Other
Unknown

The “AstroBin Image of the Day and Top Picks”, or IOTD/TP, is a long-running system to promote beautiful, interesting, peculiar, or otherwise amazing astrophotographs, with a focus on technical excellence. Learn more.

Submitted The date and time when you submitted this image for IOTD/TP consideration.	...
Views by Submitters (available since September 19th, 2023) Every image is assigned to 50% of available Submitters. In the event that at least 80% of them don't view the image before its time in the IOTD/TP process expires, it's assigned to the other 50% of Submitters and the process begins anew.
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Promotions by Reviewers When 3 distinct Reviewers promote the image, it moves on to the next stage of the process: evaluation for IOTD status.
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Status	Advanced success
Started	...
Astrometry.net job	9169680
PixInsight job	U06S3H55LLFNJCN21G4AGVJA8R9WF3R5
PixInsight queue size	n/a
PixInsight stage	TASK_LOG

RA (center)	05h05m01s.25
RA (top/left)	05h09m12s.78
RA (top/right)	05h00m52s.24
RA (bottom/right)	05h00m47s.97
RA (bottom/left)	05h09m12s.00

Dec (center)	-07°15′24″.6
Dec (top/left)	-05°42′34″.4
Dec (top/right)	-05°42′10″.8
Dec (bottom/right)	-08°48′07″.10
Dec (bottom/left)	-08°48′31″.8

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IC 2118 - The Witch Head Nebula or Godzilla, the terrible - HaRGB

IC 2118 - The Witch Head Nebula or Godzilla, the terrible - HaRGB

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IC 2118 - The Witch Head Nebula or Godzilla, the terrible - HaRGB

IC 2118 - The Witch Head Nebula or Godzilla, the terrible - HaRGB

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