CASPER, THE FRIENDLY GHOST NEBULA - MESSIER 78 - Deepsky 1800mm hALRGB - Constellation Orionis (Thomas ArtOfPix Großschmidt)

CASPER, THE FRIENDLY GHOST NEBULA - MESSIER 78 - Deepsky 1800mm hALRGB - Constellation Orionis

CASPER, THE FRIENDLY GHOST NEBULA
- MESSIER 78
- Deep sky 1800mm hALRGB
- Constellation Orionis

This magical nebula is one of my favorite objects in the starry sky, which unfortunately I have not yet photographed myself. It is associated with the Orion Molecular Cloud Complex and is approximately 1600 light-years from our solar system. The two brightest stars in this nebula, HD 38563A and HD 38563B, are magnitude 10, making this gorgeous reflection nebula glow :-)
The dark bands that snake around the nebula are thick clouds of dust that block visible light from objects behind. These dense, cold regions are the main birthplaces for new stars.
The youngest stars in the making are T Tauri stars. Also spotted were 17 Herbig-Haro objects, small nebulae around young stars. They are formed when gas ejected from the star meets clouds of dust. Herbig-Haro objects are ubiquitous in star-forming regions. Often they are seen around a single star where they are aligned along its axis of rotation. Herbig-Haro objects are very short-lived, with a lifespan of a few thousand years at best. They can become visible in a very short time as they move rapidly away from their star of origin and into the cloud of gas in interstellar space (also called interstellar matter).

Equipment & recording dates:
Dream Aerospace Systems' 16-inch Astronomical Telescope for Educational Outreach (ATEO-1) 1800mm focal length astrograph imaging telescope.
Lights: L 22x 300s // R 24x 300s, G 23x 300s & B 22x 300s // hA 13x 600s (flats, darks, bias calibrated, dithering)
Location: USA, Utah, Great Basin Desert. Remote Telescope Insight Observatory. Acquired image data set.

Image editing:
Mainly Pixinsight, Photoshop, Lightroom, GraXpert, BTX Blur Terminator, Noise Terminator, Star X Terminator

Original
Final
B

Deep Sky Northern Hemisphere
Dark Nebula
Fine Art Astrophotography
Image the Universe
Austria Astrophotography
N.I.N.A. Users
Southern Hemisphere Astro
Astrophotography Germany
Processed with Photoshop
Messier Objects
Narrowband imaging
PixInsight Addicts

Elaborations (L) hAlpha RGB
Remote Telescope (rented)

	Distinct awarded users	Total awarded images
Image of the day
Top picks
Top pick nominations

	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

	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

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Status	Advanced success
Started	...
Astrometry.net job	9288053
PixInsight job	YMCOEQVU3OOYKLRGPG4R02AZ2ZU3RWZP
PixInsight queue size	n/a
PixInsight stage	TASK_LOG

RA (center)	05h47m06s.44
RA (top/left)	05h49m55s.64
RA (top/right)	05h44m28s.79
RA (bottom/right)	05h44m17s.39
RA (bottom/left)	05h49m44s.17

Dec (center)	+00°12′12″.7
Dec (top/left)	+00°51′13″.7
Dec (top/right)	+00°54′04″.2
Dec (bottom/right)	-00°26′45″.3
Dec (bottom/left)	-00°29′36″.7

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