NGC2237, the Rosette Nebula

Image Critiques Nightscape & Astro Critiques
1

NGC2237 Rosette Nebula-Edit.jpg
NGC2237 Rosette Nebula-Edit.jpg2500×1841 1.27 MB

Critique Style Requested: Standard

The photographer is looking for generalized feedback about the aesthetic and technical qualities of their image.

Description

Or maybe I should enter this in Flora?? This is my favorite object. I’ve done it before but got a better result this time due to a number of factors. I’m pretty sure this is at the limit of my optics but I never know what I may learn for better processing.

Specific Feedback

All comments welcome!

Technical Details

SkyWatcher EQM 35 Pro tracker, Askar FRA400 refractor (optically corrected 400mm quintuplet APO astrograph), ZWO2600MC Pro astro camera cooled to -10 C, autofocuser, guiding. Calm clear reasonably dark night. The best 200 60-sec frames processed in Pixinsight. Only into PS for final crop.

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2

Really nice work Diane. The image looks 3D! I love those dark threads in the nebula on the top right. It is just amazing the size of the nebula itself given that stars are massive enough, how massive must this nebula be. Just wild.

3

Thanks, @Youssef_Ismail! This object is nearby in our galaxy, about 5,000 light years away and about 130 light years across. It’s angular diameter is 2-3 times bigger than the moon. The red is hydrogen atoms that have been ejected from the hot young stars in the center and pushed around in these turbulent shapes by the charged particles they are putting out. The solar radiation is exciting the atoms and causing a red wavelength to be emitted. I wonder what sort of local event would cause a group of stars like this to form and eject this mass of hydrogen gas.