Celestial hemisphere:  Southern  ·  Constellation: Vela (Vel)
Vela SNR Highway, Jeff Coldrey
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Vela SNR Highway

Vela SNR Highway, Jeff Coldrey
Powered byPixInsight

Vela SNR Highway

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Description

I currently have some vacation time allowing me to stay up all night, sleep all day, and complete a few imaging projects.

This is an attempt at the "Highway" section of the Vela SNR, the remnant of a massive star that exploded around 12,000 years ago towards the end of The Stone Age. It spans approximately 8 degrees by 8 degrees making it ~16 times the apparent diameter of our Moon. Expanding shockwaves from the SNR explosion compress and ionise surrounding material, generating regions of enhanced density and magnetic fields. These regions serve as conduits for the acceleration of ions and electrons, creating bright filaments of emission that trace the path of the magnetic field lines (Wikipedia abridged).

The Vela SNR is vast and complex, making it difficult to navigate. 
@Gary Imm has provided an excellent annotated image and description of the region here.

The Ha signal in this region is particularly strong. During PixInsight processing I found GHS-stretched Ha and OIII a little overwhelming (revision C), so I reverted to more subdued Histogram Transformation STF stretching for my final version. I'm really enjoying the new Gradient Removal tool in PI which reduces processing effort, along with the excellent Russell Croman tools.

Thanks for looking and CS!

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