Not so long time ago I shot Bubble Nebula with modded Canon 450D. Total exposure was 6.5h and I was pretty happy with the outcome. But the time has come for narrowband exposures. Hydrogen alpha is the first filter used and this black and white result I present today. As you probably remember this filter passes the light that corresponds to the hydrogen presence in the space, so all cloudies in the picture are actually massive hydrogen regions. At the upper right border you can see fragment of M52 open star cluster (about 5000 light years away).
Bubble nebula (NGC7635) is actually hydrogen II region emission nebula placed about 11,000 light years away. The bubble shape is created by stellar wind from massive blue central star.
In the right part of the picture you will find NGC7538 nebula which is the region of active star formation. This one is placed a little bit closer – about 9100 light years away from us.
There is actually very little of dark sky in this area – the hydrogen is almost everywhere. That’s why the whole picture is filled with some haze.
The picture itself has been shot with my current setup – GSO 6″ F4.5 newtonian with Atik383L+ camera and Baader hydrogen alpha filter. Total exposure time was 5.5h. Next in the queue are Oiii and Sii images of this region, so finally I am going to greate HST palette image of Bubble nebula.
Clear skies!
