So this the Shark Nebula a.k.a. Lynds Dark Nebula 1235 (LDN 1235) or at least the front portion of it. It is composed of interstellar gas and dust and unlike some other objects, this one really does resemble a shark. It must be a Great White as it is larger than my field of view. It is huge at 15 light-years across and relatively close at 650 light-years away in Cepheus. Also located within LDN 1235 are Van den Bergh149 & 150 (Vdb149 & 150) after Sidney Van Den Bergh who produced a catalog of bright reflection nebula with embedded stars in 1966. Vdb150 is the blue reflection nebula located at the back of the shark's head while Vdb149 is located on the bottom. Vdb149 was first talked about in 1957 while Vdb150 goes back to 1918 when Annie Jump Cannon and Edward Pickering noted it.
I really enjoy dark nebula and like to image them even though they are the hardest DSOs to capture in light polluted areas - no reason not to try. I captured just under 10 hrs of data but had to reject a fair amount due to what I call 'fake clear skies' - poor transparency. The night sky has not been clear since at my location so this will be my last DSO for a while.
Although I enjoy dark nebulae they are tough to process and this was no different. I find it difficult what to highlight and how much color to add without overdoing it while at the same time keeping the noise down. I thought I was done three times and then decided on another adjustment to make. I ended up merging two of my slightly different processed images so I got the best of both worlds.
Date: 6-24-20, 6-25-20, 6-26-20, 6-27-20
https://kurtzeppetello.smugmug.com/http://astroquest1.blogspot.com/http://youtube.com/c/AstroQuest1
Comments