Collecting Photons

M 78 and the McNeil nebula

Wide field image centred around M78. Processing aimed at detecting the weak nebulosity of the area. The red glow on the upper left corner is a small section of the huge Barnard's loop. Megrez fluo 80 mm f6.0 30x8', iso 800, Canon 350D Hutech type I. Calibration and asinh stretching in Iris. Gradient, histograms and masked curve operating in PixInsight. Noise reduction in Neat Image. Final touches in CS2.

A close up of the area south of M78 where is located the McNeil nebula. The picture on the left was shot on February 10^th and 15^th 2005. The image (C8, 200 mm f6.3, 14x8', iso 400, 300D) shows the nebula (yellow arrowhead). In spite of the fact that the image on the right is much deeper, here the nebula is invisible (January 31^st, 2006). The nebula appeared back in January 2009, as shown in the third image of the serie.

In response to my alert other observer confirmed the event and the observation was circulated by CBAT at the end of January 2006:

Circular No. 8681
Central Bureau for Astronomical Telegrams
INTERNATIONAL ASTRONOMICAL UNION
Mailstop 18, Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory, Cambridge, MA 02138,
U.S.A.
IAUSUBS@CFA.HARVARD.EDU or FAX 617-495-7231 (subscriptions)
CBAT@CFA.HARVARD.EDU (science)
URL http://cfa-www.harvard.edu/iau/cbat.html ISSN 0081-0304
Phone 617-495-7440/7244/7444 (for emergency use only)

V1647 ORIONIS AND ASSOCIATED NEBULA
Further to IAUC 8600 and IBVS 5661, several observers recently have reported the extreme fading of the nebula associated with V1647 Ori, including B. Reipurth (University of Hawaii), G. M. Ratto (Pisa, Italy), and P. Corelli (Pagnacco, Italy). Corelli writes that his unfiltered CCD frames from Feb. 6 show no nebula to a limiting stellar mag of 18. Reipurth remarks that this appears to confirm its having been a short 'EXor' eruption (cf. IAUC 8289).

(January 31^st, 2006).

See here for the SEDS page about the Mc Neil nebula.

The HRGB composite of M78 and the Barnard's loop.

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Send anything that comes to mind to Gimmi Ratto gimmi@in.cnr.it