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Image of the day 10/01/2022

    Sh2-132 the Lion nebula in H-HSO with RGB stars, Nicola Beltraminelli
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    Sh2-132 the Lion nebula in H-HSO with RGB stars

    Image of the day 10/01/2022

      Sh2-132 the Lion nebula in H-HSO with RGB stars, Nicola Beltraminelli
      Powered byPixInsight

      Sh2-132 the Lion nebula in H-HSO with RGB stars

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      Description

      The Lion nebula has become now a very classical one, with no less than 965 pictures uploaded on Astrobin.

      As mentioned by many, Sharpless 2-132 is a very faint emission type nebula on the Cepheus/Lacerta border. Its size is in the order of 40 arcmin, but in reality if one consider the very faint signals, the nebula covers significantly more than a degree. According to what I could find on the internet, Sh2-132 is located at about 10400 light years. The stars responsible for the ionization of its gases are as very often very hot and massive. However it is worth noting that, among these, there are two Wolf-Rayet stars , HD 211 564 and HD 211 853 (the latter named also WR 153).

      So, with more than 965 images published what can be really done special? Well, by looking at the huge number of beatiful images, I observed that for many the level of details was not very high. Furthermore, despite the huge variations in the color palette, I trusted that by finely tuning the balance, I would be able to find something novel. 

      So, I captured my usual SHO sequences by focusing to achieve first a highly detailed Ha layer. By using my 10 Micron GM2000 HPS II mount, I was very happy to achieve (manually) pointing models with an accuracy of 1,6 and 1,8 arcsec on the two Ha nights. This did pay off, because I think that I never reached such level of details on any of my previous images. For the SII and OIII channels, I selected 300s and 600s subs respectively, but in reality I discovered later that the nebula is way stronger in OIII emission than SII. This is exactly the reverse than for Sh2-119! At that point I started combining the layers and there I saw an option to push for something a bit special. As a matter of fact, to my (limited) experience, this is the first nebula I could capture where all the colors can be observed on the final image without triggering something artificial. As a matter of fact, in the picture you can easily detect blue, violet, purple, red, turquoise, green, yellow, orange...

      Finally I hope that you will enjoy this new version of Sh2-132. Don't hesitate to comment and provide your thoughts.

      Clear skies

      Nicola

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