SH2-261 - Lower's Nebula
Amateur astronomers Harold Lower and his son Charles captured this nebula on a photographic plate in 1939 using personally crafted equipment and an 8-inch Schmidt camera (f/1) of their own design (published in 1939). Lower's Nebula (SH2-261) as it is now called, is positioned in the constellation of orion and is rich with ionized hydrogen, (red), sulfer (yellow), and oxygen (blue). The bottom area of the nebula features many glowing filaments and bok globules which likely are sites of active star formation. There is an intersting oxygen-rich feature in the core of the nebula that remains uncharacterized but appears to surround the O-type star (O7.5V star HD 41997) that is credited for irradiation and illumination of the nebula.
Acquisition Details
Imaging telescope: Stellarvue SV105 APO
Imaging camera: QSI 683 wsg-8
Mount: Orion Atlas EQ-G (belt mod)
Guiding camera: Loadestar 2
Software: Main Sequence Software Seqence Generator Pro, Deep Sky Stacker (DSS), Photoshop CC, PhD Guiding 2
Resolution: 6000x4800
Dates: Feb. 2, Feb. 17, Feb. 22, 2017
Frames:
Ha 1.25" 7nm: 13x1200" -20C bin 1x1
O3 1.25" 8.5nm: 15x1200" -20C bin 1x1
S2 1.25" 8nm: 18x1200" -20C bin 1x1
Integration: 15.3 hours
Darks: ~50
Flats: ~50
Bias: ~50
Bortle Dark-Sky Scale: 5.00
RA center: 92.260 degrees
DEC center: 15.724 degrees
Pixel scale: 1.6 arcsec/pixel
Sky Map
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