Collecting Photons
VdB 152 - LBN 528 - LBN 538 (PN G111.0+11.6) Cepheus
North is to the right 1600x1149 Central Area PN G111 Wide Field
Objects: VdB 152 (reflection nebula); LBN 528 (associated dust nebula); PN G111.0+11.6 (planetary nebula)
Constellation: Cepheus
Coordinates of field center: 22h 14m +70° 43'
Notes:
going for this nebula is a challenging proposition, also considering the number
of beautiful shots that have been taken of this area. The faint red arch that
reaches the top of the dust pillar of VdB152 is an extremely faint supernova
residue
(G110.3+11.3) identified in 2001(Bally,
J. & Reipurth, B. 2001, ApJ, 552, L159). In spite of the lousy conditions I had
at the time of imaging (very high temperature and poor transparency with the
Milky way barely visible only at the zenith) I went for depth both with the
luminance and the unbinned color frames. It turned out that the field contains
more nebulosity than I initially thought. The long RGB acquisition helped in bringing out
several filaments with some interesting colors.
Telescope and camera: ASA 10', f 3.6; SBIG STL 11000.
Exposure: Luminance 61x8'; R, B 23x10'; G 23x8'. Almost 19 hrs total.
Date: 4 nights on 21-08-09, 23, 24, 25-08-09.
Software used: acquisition, CCDsoft. Calibration; registration and stacking: CCDstack, Registar; processing: PixInsight, Photoshop CS.
Processing notes: several bright stars required lots of work to control their haloes. A major effort went into maintaining the correct star colors.
Full resolution detail of VdB 152
This full resolution image shows in greater details the reflection nebula itself. At its bright center there is a bright star (mv 9.2) that is carving a tiny double shell in the nebula. Immediately to its north (right) there is a very dense patch of dust that is completely opaque. Here conditions might become adequate for star formation. Indeed, a tiny red shell that might associated to star formation is visible near the W edge (up) of the dark knot: this is an Herbig Haro object (HH450) a second HH jet is visible further W (up) in the shape of a tiny elongated trail (Bally, J. & Reipurth, B. 2001, ApJ, 552, L159).
Full resolution detail of the planetary nebula PN G111.0+11.6
The planetary nebula PN G111.0+11.6 is a nice complement of the field. The chromatic contrast of the pure red and blue-green emissions from HII and OIII is a brilliant counterpoint with the more subdued hues of the reflection nebula. A "very" blue star is visible near the center of the OIII emission and, I bet, it is the exciting star. A search on the Sloan survey showed that this blue object is not point-like. I wonder if it might be an inner shell that has been released recently.
See: http://cas.sdss.org/astro/en/tools/explore/obj.asp?id=758874295839556096
This is the almost full frame image, with only minor crop along the right and left edges. This unusual framing actually correspond to the conventional orientation of the field, with the north edge on top. Obviously most of the field is filled with nebulosity with an interesting blending of colors.
Copyright © 2009 by Gimmi Ratto. (September 8, 2009)
