SH2-150 and vdB-154 (Joel Shepherd)

Celestial hemisphere: Northern · Constellation: Cepheus (Cep) · Contains: HD213405 · HD214072 · LBN 520 · LBN 523 · LDN 1213 · Sh2-150 · VdB154

Powered byPixInsight

SH2-150 and vdB-154

Powered byPixInsight

SH2-150 and vdB-154

This is actually two nebulae: SH2-150, the squid-ish red cloud on the left, and vdB-154, the blue/purple-ish bit on the right. Not much is known about either other than that SH2-150 is mostly hydrogen and about 2900 light-years away. Oh, and that it's pretty dim, which helps explain the somewhat bloated appearance of the brightest stars: stretching the image to make the nebula visible unfortunately also brings out the halos from the telescope's optics visible around the brightest stars.

I made the mistake of assuming that Sh2-150 -- a nebula from a catalog of hydrogen-rich nebula compiled by astronomer Stewart Sharpless in the 1950s -- would photograph well using narrowband filters, which allow the camera to capture specific wavelengths of light emitted by certain elements like hydrogen, oxygen and sulfur. Unfortunately, much of this nebula, including the blue-ish vdB-154, is a fundamentally different kind of nebula that reflects light from nearby stars, rather than glowing with its own emissions. Reflection nebula, as they're called, respond well to broadband filters, which capture entire swaths of the spectrum. Long story short, I could do better with this, especially with blues, if I take more broadband exposures of it when it comes back up next fall.

In the meantime, it's still pretty.

Sharpless2 Objects
The refractors!
N.I.N.A. Users
TEC140 Refractor

Please note: The following tables are updated every 24 hours.

Distribution of astrophotographers

This table shows the number of distinct astrophotographers who have been assigned and IOTD/TP award compared to the total number of images awarded.
	Distinct awarded users	Total awarded images
Image of the day
Top picks
Top pick nominations

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
Landscape

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
Own remote observatory
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.
Promotions by Submitters When 3 distinct Submitters promote the image, it moves on to the next stage of the process: evaluation for Top Pick status. This requirement, in addition to anonymization of images and distribution to only a subset of them, prevents biases and ensures that the best images are selected.
Promotions by Reviewers When 3 distinct Reviewers promote the image, it moves on to the next stage of the process: evaluation for IOTD status.
Early dismissal Staff members have a lot of images to inspect on a daily basis, and they can dismiss images if they believe they don't meet the requirements for IOTD/TP selection. If an image is dismissed 5 times, it's removed from the process. This streamlines the process and ensures that any bias present in promotions could be overruled by other staff members.

Status	Advanced success
Started	...
Astrometry.net job	7658205
PixInsight job	8KVOCNUOG0ARJCKVXY0BJMRST1ESX4NJ
PixInsight queue size	n/a
PixInsight stage	TASK_LOG

RA (center)	22h31m24s.71
RA (top/left)	22h31m43s.68
RA (top/right)	22h36m08s.89
RA (bottom/right)	22h31m05s.13
RA (bottom/left)	22h26m43s.48

Dec (center)	+65°09′36″.6
Dec (top/left)	+64°38′45″.3
Dec (top/right)	+65°17′57″.8
Dec (bottom/right)	+65°40′27″.4
Dec (bottom/left)	+65°00′42″.2

Image Index:

Contribution Index (beta):

SH2-150 and vdB-154

SH2-150 and vdB-154

Equipment

Acquisition details

Description

Comments

Acquired at

Sky plot

Histogram

In these public groups

		...
You have no new notifications.

Image Index:

Contribution Index (beta):

SH2-150 and vdB-154

SH2-150 and vdB-154

Equipment

Acquisition details

Description

Comments

Acquired at

Sky plot

Histogram

In these public groups

Notifications

AstroBin is in READ ONLY mode

Sorry :-(

Sorry :-(

Sorry :-(

Are you really sure?

Warning!

Warning!

Are you sure?

Report abuse

Slideshow settings

IOTD/TP stats (last [x] days)

Distribution of astrophotographers

Distribution of subject types

Distribution of data sources

Sorry

Sorry

Share

Upload new revision

Upload uncompressed source (XISF/FITS/PSD/TIFF)

Delete image and all its revisions?

Delete original image?

Delete all other versions?

Delete all revisions?

IOTD/TP stats

The following people like this image

The following people bookmarked this image

Warning

Flag malfunctioning thumbnails

Contains

Remove yourself as a collaborator

Plate-solving information