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Tuesday, December 22, 2020

Sharpless 114, the Flying Dragon Nebula

 While shooting more frames for my great mosaic of Cygnus I shot a set of frames for the Sharpless 114 (Sh2-114) , the Flying Dragon Nebula. Part of the image was used for the mosaic but the dragon part was out of the field of view.
I decided to make an individual image out of it since it's not a very well known object and it's beautiful too. I have shot the Sh2-114 with a longer focal length instrumen back in 2015
 

The Flying Dragon
Click for a large image

Photo is in natural colors combined from narrowband channels. An ionized hydrogen, H-alpha, is emitting deep red light and it's dominating the color scheme.

A closeup
Click for a large image

Photo is in natural colors combined from narrowband channels. An ionized hydrogen, H-alpha, is emitting deep red light and it's dominating the color scheme.

An older long focal length version
Click for a large image

Photo is in natural colors combined from narrowband channels. An ionized hydrogen, H-alpha, is emitting deep red light and it's dominating the color scheme.

INFO

Sh2-114 is a complex and unusual HII emission nebula. Its complex, wispy structure is likely the result of winds from hot, massive stars interacting with the magnetic fields in the interstellar medium. But very little is known about it. (Source, https://www.noao.edu/image_gallery/html/im1112.html)

Orientation
Click for a large image

Sharpless 114 can be seen at lower left corner, field of view is framed.

Technical details

Processing workflow

Image acquisition, MaxiDL v5.07.
Stacked and calibrated in CCDStack2.
Deconvolution with a CCDStack2 Positive Constraint, 33 iterations, added at 50% weight
Color combine in PS CS3
Levels and curves in PS CS3.

Imaging optics

Mount
10-micron 1000

Cameras and filters
Imaging camera Apogee Alta U16 and Apogee seven slot filter wheel
Guider camera, Lodestar x 2 and an old spotting scope of Meade LX200

Astrodon filters,
5nm H-alpha 3nm S-II and 3nm O-III

Exposure time

H-alpha, 15 x 1200 s, binned 1x1 = 5 h
O-III, 1x 1200 s, binned 2x2 = 20 min.
S-II, 1 x 1200 s. binned 2x2 = 20 min.

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