IC417 & NGC 1931, is commonly known as the Spider and Fly Nebula. They are located approximately 10,000 and 7,000 light-years respectively from the Earth in the constellation Auriga. These two nebulae are composed of massive clouds of gas and dust and is the site of new stellar birth. The gas in the nebula is excited by a clusters of massive, relatively newly formed, stars located near their centers. The large nebula on the right side of the image is the Spider and the small nebula is the Fly. The two bright stars in the Spider are foreground objects and not part of the nebula. The brightest star is designated Phi Aurigaeand is only about 450 light years from the Earth. ~
Waid ObservatoryIt took 7 nights to get a decent amount of integration. I imaged this target the first 4 nights at 1:30 a.m. after imaging the Fish Head Nebula. That didn't offer many hours of integration . Battling with cloud cover, I managed to get the integration I was looking for especially on the last night. The cloud cover cleared at 2100. The forecast doesn't look promising for the rest of the month.
Thanks for looking,
CS
Todd
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