SH2-174

[AstronomyUkraine]

SH2-174 is a very faint planetary nebula in the constellation of Cepheus. There is a total of 53 hours of data in this target. 34 Ha, 16 OIII and 3 hours of RGB stars. Even with so much data, this object is not easy to process, the signal is very weak in both Ha and OIII. After trying many formula and methods of combining, the one that worked best for me, was stretching the channels first, then combining using the Foraxx formula.

 

R - Ha

G - ((OIII*Ha)^~(OIII*Ha))*Ha + ~((OIII*Ha)^~(OIII*Ha))*OIII

B - OIII

 

For anyone wanting to get away from galaxy season, this is the ideal object. It is available all year round, providing you have a clear view North.

 

Edited May 15 by AstronomyUkraine

[Sonyme]

Never seen this before. It's a fascinating image. The faint blue jet like structures above the bright blue area are very interesting. A helmet even Lewis Hamilton would be proud of.  Beautiful.    Gary

 

[Carastro]

Well done Bryan.

Carole 

[AstronomyUkraine]

1 hour ago, Sonyme said:

Never seen this before. It's a fascinating image. The faint blue jet like structures above the bright blue area are very interesting. A helmet even Lewis Hamilton would be proud of.  Beautiful.    Gary

 

Thanks Gary. I wasn't aware of it myself until quite recently. It was an accidental find on Stellarium.

[AstronomyUkraine]

9 minutes ago, Carastro said:

Well done Bryan.

Carole 

Thank you Carole.

[Dmack1]

Thats a fantastic image - a new one on me also.

[Adam Y]

Very nice!  North is about the ONLY view I have, so may have to give this one a go.  Reminds me of a firey opal.

 

EDIT - I went for a look in Stellarium, and I can see it listed but my sensor view just shows a starfield.  Is there anything I need to turn on, or is it that faint? 

Edited May 15 by Adam Y

[AstronomyUkraine]

25 minutes ago, Adam Y said:

Very nice!  North is about the ONLY view I have, so may have to give this one a go.  Reminds me of a firey opal.

Thanks Adam. It's in a great position at the moment. It is just on the East of Polaris when full darkness falls, so no flips to deal with. BTW it is also called the Valentine's Rose nebula.

Edited May 15 by AstronomyUkraine

[AstronomyUkraine]

23 minutes ago, Adam Y said:

Very nice!  North is about the ONLY view I have, so may have to give this one a go.  Reminds me of a firey opal.

Thanks. Activating the SH2 catalogue in Stellarium shows all sorts of wonderful objects.

[RaDec]

Excellent image Bryan - not one I've seen before either, so thanks for the heads-up.

Not got much of a view to the north from here. Thatched roof is a bit impenetrable!

Well done

[AstronomyUkraine]

2 hours ago, RaDec said:

Excellent image Bryan - not one I've seen before either, so thanks for the heads-up.

Not got much of a view to the north from here. Thatched roof is a bit impenetrable!

Well done

Thanks Keith. Maybe later in the year when the object is above Polaris you might get to image it.

[AstronomyUkraine]

6 hours ago, Adam Y said:

EDIT - I went for a look in Stellarium, and I can see it listed but my sensor view just shows a starfield.  Is there anything I need to turn on, or is it that faint? 

Check this article I posted last year above tweaking Stellarium to find more objects. You'll see the nebula after you tweak Stellarium.

 

 

[Astrobdlbug]

Wow, 53 hours Brian, can only dream of that amount of clear sky, past few months have been woeful in UK and now being  further north than your location, astro dark is about an 1hr and will dissappear for a couple of months.

 

Very unusual target and interesting structure. There's a hint of linear vertical structure in the Oiii region, almost aurora like.

Spunds like you spent as much time processing the data as aquiring the subsm - It is an amazing image.

 

Assume the data was aquired using the new 2.8nm Antlia filters.

Did you use longer exposures for your subs with the narrower bandwidth filter to help overcome the faint nature of the target ?

 

Still cant get over that you got 53 hrs on a single target.......

 

Bryan

[AstronomyUkraine]

10 hours ago, Astrobdlbug said:

Wow, 53 hours Brian, can only dream of that amount of clear sky, past few months have been woeful in UK and now being  further north than your location, astro dark is about an 1hr and will dissappear for a couple of months.

 

Very unusual target and interesting structure. There's a hint of linear vertical structure in the Oiii region, almost aurora like.

Spunds like you spent as much time processing the data as aquiring the subsm - It is an amazing image.

 

Assume the data was aquired using the new 2.8nm Antlia filters.

Did you use longer exposures for your subs with the narrower bandwidth filter to help overcome the faint nature of the target ?

 

Still cant get over that you got 53 hrs on a single target.......

 

Bryan

Thanks Bryan. It's the only NB target I could find from my location, so I devoted all my imaging time to it. The weather here has not been fantastic, but my pier is outside permanently, so I can setup in minutes and start imaging.

 

The OIII is relatively strong compared to the Ha, but both are still very weak, hence the amount of data collected. I could add even more data to the image, and it could take it.

 

I messed around for ages trying various methods of combining and stretching, until I found a method that worked. Here is a reworking that had the stacks stretched in GHS before combining, using the Foraxx method. I managed to drag out more background nebula with this method.

 

 

Both the OIII and Ha data was collected using 10 minute subs. I reckon on a moonless night, 15 minute subs are achievable. Using the formula to determine my background median, developed by John Rista, my optimal DN is just over 800, with the Ha I'm quite close to that, but the OIII filter was hovering between 550 and 600 last night, so longer exposures should not be a problem.