California Nebula
I managed to get some time in the observatory on Friday night. There was a full moon so imaging using visible light was a non-starter.
I fitted the telescope with an H alpha filter which only allows radiation produced by ionised hydrogen through.
I took an hours worth of data from the California Nebula (NGC 1499) which is an emission nebula in the constellation of Perseus. It is so named because it appears to resemble the outline of the US State of California on long exposure photographs. My monochrome image shows less than 1° of sky along the long edge so only contains a portion of the nebula which is a large object about 2.5° long on the sky. The nebula lies at a distance of about 1,000 light years from Earth. Its fluorescence is due to excitation of hydrogen gas in the nebula by the nearby energetic star Menkib.
I fitted the telescope with an H alpha filter which only allows radiation produced by ionised hydrogen through.
I took an hours worth of data from the California Nebula (NGC 1499) which is an emission nebula in the constellation of Perseus. It is so named because it appears to resemble the outline of the US State of California on long exposure photographs. My monochrome image shows less than 1° of sky along the long edge so only contains a portion of the nebula which is a large object about 2.5° long on the sky. The nebula lies at a distance of about 1,000 light years from Earth. Its fluorescence is due to excitation of hydrogen gas in the nebula by the nearby energetic star Menkib.
posted by David R at 2:00 pm
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