From Hook to Hook - Star and Reflection Field in Vulpecula
Askar FRA500; iOptron HEM27; ASI2600MC; ZWO Lum Filter; 1x3 Mosaic
(117,78,68 x 180s exposures, Bin 1x1, Gain 100)
Total Integration Time = 13.2 hours
I wanted to capture a fairly dense starfield in the Milky Way and turned to Vulpecula which is essentially looking downstream along our spiral arm. I started at Brocchi’s Cluster – an asterism of 10 stars shapes like a coathanger – with the hook on the LHS. On the right hand side is another hook, this time created by dark nebulosity blotting out stars. In between there are quite a lot of things and this is a rich object area. Many of which are not visible in this wide view or can only be seen by zooming in.
Some of things that you can see include two catalogued open star clusters (NGC 6802 and NGC 6793) and Sh2-83 – the only Ha – red emitting, star generating, nebula visible. Can you spot it I n the lower left quadrant of the image. It is pretty small here, but we don’t really know either its true size or distance. Some galaxies appear as mere smudges in the background.
The image is full of “LDN” dark nebulae and lots of reflection nebula both off of distant stars, giving the background a dusty orange colour, as well as closer “white” reflections off of brighter, whiter stars. Altogether, I can see or am told that the image contains: a coathanger, two hooks, an elephant head, a black cat, a lizard eating something, a smudged IBM Selectric "L" and even the Loch Ness Monster. Can you see all eight?