Celestial hemisphere:  Northern  ·  Constellation: Cepheus (Cep)  ·  Contains:  The star 16 Cep  ·  The star 24 Cep  ·  The star 31 Cep
The Shark and the Rotten Fish in an Ocean of Dust, Daniele Borsari
The Shark and the Rotten Fish in an Ocean of Dust, Daniele Borsari

The Shark and the Rotten Fish in an Ocean of Dust

The Shark and the Rotten Fish in an Ocean of Dust, Daniele Borsari
The Shark and the Rotten Fish in an Ocean of Dust, Daniele Borsari

The Shark and the Rotten Fish in an Ocean of Dust

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Description

This is a project I've been working on for a few months and that I'm very happy to share after all this work.


The objects:

This image shows various objects, from dark nebulae to reflection nebulae and even some distant galaxies. All the nebulae in the foreground are part of the Cepheus molecular cloud complex, a network of molecular clouds (distant from 650 to 1500 light years from Earth) where new stars are born. Some areas are lit up by the new-born stars themselves, while others are so dense that they block the optical spectrum of light coming from behind them. The largest objects in the image are the Shark Nebula (LDN 1235) and the Rotten Fish Nebula (LDN 1251).

The Shark Nebula (named after its shape) is a dark nebula that lies at a distance of around 650 light years from Earth. It could look like that the two blue reflection nebulae (Vdb 149 and Vdb 150) are part of the same object, but it isn't exactly clear if they are actually located nearby or if it's just our perspective. Above the Shark there is UGC 11861, a barred spiral galaxy located 60 million light years away.

02_LDN1235.jpg
A crop of the original image showing LDN 1235, the reflection nebulae VdB 149 and Vdb 150 and the galaxy UGC 11861.


The Rotten Fish Nebula is also a dark nebula, located at about 1000 light years from the Solar System. Its elongated shape is thought to be the result of interactions with solar winds of a supernova explosion. To the left and above the dark nebula there are respectively UGC 12160, and LEDA 166755, two galaxies.

01_LDN1251.jpg
A crop of the original image showing LDN 1251, UGC 12160 and LEDA 166755.


Spread all over the background, and in some cases close to the main dark nebulae, many apparently small and distant galaxies can be seen. These are the brightest (as a reference UGC 11861 has an apparent magnitude of 15.2):

Galaxies.png


The image:

Data acquisition started at the end of August, when I still had my ZWO ASI533MC Pro (IMX533 color), and around 22 hours of color data were captured. Later on I switched to the Player One Ares-M (IMX533 mono) and from the start of October to the start of November I shot almost 18 hours of luminance (of which 4 hours and a half were acquired under Bortle 4 skies from my moutain home).

Despite the long integration it was a really difficult image to process, mainly beacuse of the light pollution I have in that specific area of sky. I had to find the balance between colors and the level of stretch, both for the nebulosity and for the stars, while dealing with noise and gradients. After some trial and error I came up with this version, which I'm quite happy with.


Hope you enjoyed it and clear skies!

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The Shark and the Rotten Fish in an Ocean of Dust, Daniele Borsari

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