Celestial hemisphere:  Southern  ·  Constellation: Scorpius (Sco)  ·  Contains:  IC 4628
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The Prawn Nebula - Hubble Palette, Terry Robison
The Prawn Nebula - Hubble Palette
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Getting plate-solving status, please wait...
The Prawn Nebula - Hubble Palette, Terry Robison
The Prawn Nebula - Hubble Palette
Powered byPixInsight

Equipment

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Acquisition details

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Description

The Prawn Nebula is located in the Sagittarius Arm of the Milky Way, in the constellation Scorpius. Other names include both IC 4628, and Gum 56. From our vantage point, it is about 6,000 light-years away. IC 4628 is an extensive stellar nursery containing a large number of very hot, luminous, young stars created from the surrounding gases.

The nebula is about 250 light-years in diameter, with an apparent size of 1.5 degrees. For reference, this would cover an area three to four times the size of the moon. With my instrument, the full moon will fill my sensor. Unfortunately, I can’t fit the entire complex within this image.

Gum 56 is very faint and emits light at wavelengths not visible to our eyes. Two luminous giants and several young stars in this nebula emit an incredible amount of ultraviolet radiation ionising the hydrogen gas. The result, it glows. Within this invisibility, many things are concealed. Material ejected from violent supernova in the past provides new materials that allow for the formation of new stars. The cycle of stellar life and death continues as dust and gases collapse down, forming new stars.

The photo presented is a narrowband image created by combining filtered light from SII, Ha, and OIII filters. It allows us to reveal details of objects that we cannot see easily, or not at all. Often, the results can be very striking and dramatic. I tried to retain that pleasing gradient of yellow golds, through bands of teal, and hues of blue found in a traditional Hubble Palette image. I was pleased with the star colours ranging from blue to red, using only the narrowband filters. These colours appear very different from a traditional true colour image constructed with red, green, blue filtered light.

Instruments:

• 10 Inch RCOS fl 9.1

• Astro Physics AP-900 Mount

• SBIG STL 11000m

• FLI Filter Wheel

• Baader Planetarium H-alpha 7nm Narrowband-Filter

• Baader Planetarium OIII 8.5nm Narrowband-Filter

• Baader Planetarium SII 8.0nm Narrowband-Filter

Exposure Details:

• SII 22 X 1800

• Ha 22 X 1800

• OIII 24 X 1800

Total Exposure Time: 34.0 Hours

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