Sh2-261 (Gary Imm)

Celestial hemisphere: Northern · Constellation: Orion (Ori) · Contains: 69 Ori · 69 f01 Ori · HD251347 · HD251374 · HD251395 · HD251497 · HD251512 · HD251536 · HD251563 · HD251597 · HD251631 · HD251652 · HD251732 · HD251767 · HD251855 · HD251900 · HD251924 · HD251925 · HD251979 · HD252004 · HD252088 · HD252089 · HD252135 · HD252245 · HD252333 · HD252359 · HD252360 · HD252387 · HD252540 · HD252650 · And 27 more.

Sh2-261

This object, also known as Lower’s Nebula, is an emission nebula located 6000 light years away in the constellation of Orion at a declination of +16 degrees. This nebula spans 1 degree in our apparent view, which corresponds to a width of about 100 light years.

This nebula was one of the last large and bright deep sky objects discovered by amateur astronomers. The large reddish outer portion indicates hydrogen gas and is the object that was discovered by Harold Lower and his son Charles, in 1939.

The interesting small feature at nebula center looks a bit like an upside-down mushroom. I have not been able to find an explanation for this uniquely shaped object. The greenish center area corresponds to oxygen gas, so the mushroom-shaped gas "bubble" could be due to a recent large emission of oxygen from an unseen star. There is some question whether the large star which appears to lie in the center of the bubble is just in the foreground or is associated with the bubble itself.

Texas Astronomy
Fine Art Astrophotography
Narrowband imaging
Takahashi Refractors
Sharpless2 Objects
ASI 6200 MM Pro
The refractors!
CMOS Imagers
Cloudy Nights

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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.

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Status	Advanced success
Started	...
Astrometry.net job	6166155
PixInsight job	FRD6267R6M35J4A5G7VIPADBOQ63HNRS
PixInsight queue size	n/a
PixInsight stage	TASK_LOG

RA (center)	06h09m04s.627
RA (top/left)	06h13m00s.257
RA (top/right)	06h05m19s.647
RA (bottom/right)	06h05m10s.335
RA (bottom/left)	06h12m48s.207

Dec (center)	+15°47′20″.10
Dec (top/left)	+16°21′48″.64
Dec (top/right)	+16°25′44″.76
Dec (bottom/right)	+15°12′38″.46
Dec (bottom/left)	+15°08′42″.80

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