This is a project where I simply found an empty spot in the HIPS2FITS Sky Survey in NINA, pointed my telescope at it, and started shooting in narrowband. Turns out that it contains four Sharpless objects and one vdB object (154). It's my second FAAFO ("f*^& around and find out") project where I just point the scope at an empty spot on the sky surveys and start shooting. The first FAAFO I did ultimately resulted in
my first IOTD, weirdly. Turns out that, to the best of my knowledge, I wound up taking the first long-focal-length visible light image of the runaway star Zeta Ophiuchi. I found it through
this FAAFO shot and then zoomed in on it with my big scope. I don't think this one is going to produce the same kind of result. But I thought it still came out nicely, and it's a shot that is pretty rare here on AB. In both FAAFO cases, it turns out that I was shooting some fairly well known but infrequently imaged Sharpless objects.
I think it's worth noting that this is something we amateurs can do that professionals simply can't do. I can point my telescope wherever I want, shoot however I want, and for as long as I want. I don't have to produce a 40-page technical justification for telescope time and state my objectives in detail. My main objective is simply to explore the night sky--and if I can produce a cool image out of it, that's gravy.
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