The Strawberry Nebula (SH2-263 and VdB 38) (In Explore 11 March 2025)
I have been very fortunate over the past week to have had 7 continuous clear nights which is unheard of here in Devon, in fact I can’t ever remember having such a prolonged spell.
This image of the Strawberry or Raspberry nebula is the first from this week. SH2-263 is an emission nebula juxtaposed with the reflection nebula VdB 38. The main sequence, blue giant HD34989, located around 736.26 light years from Earth, illuminates the nebula which is located just north of the star Bellatrix in the head of Orion.
Capture details on Astrobin: app.astrobin.com/i/yuajdn
Apologies if you’ve seen this before, I accidentally deleted it so I’m reposting it!
The Tadpoles (IC410)
The Tadpoles
My latest astro image taken recently. The Tadpoles is an emission nebula and star forming region in the constellation Auriga. The colours are determined by assigning the three main bands of emission to the R,G and B respectively – Sulphur SII to R, Hydrogen Alpha to G and Oxygen OIII to Blue. This colour mapping was first developed for the Hubble telescope an hence known as the Hubble palette.
High resolution and capture details: app.astrobin.com/i/d7e1ps
Horesehead and Flame (in Explore 8 Feb 2025)
The Horsehead and Flame nebulae in Orion. The famous Horsehead is a dark nebula, catalogued as Barnard 33, framed by the Hydrogen Alpha emissions of IC434. The large bright star is Alnitak, the furthest East of the three stars of Orion’s belt and further east is The Flame Nebula, NGC 2024. Further emission nebulae, including NGC2023, IC435 and VdB51 also feature.
The total image is composed of a total of 7 hours 13 minutes of Hydrogen Alpha and RGB data.
Full details on Astrobin: app.astrobin.com/i/kviaqr
The Heart and Soul Nebulae (in Explore 2 January 2025)
Wishing you all a Happy New Year.
More background and details on Astrobin: app.astrobin.com/i/2lufbh
The Pleiades (M45)
The Pleiades or Seven Sisters is an open star cluster in the constellation Taurus. The seven main stars are easily visible with the naked eye.
This is a reprocessed version of an image taken back in October 2023 which now reveals fainter dust surrounding the main stars.
More details on Astrobin: astrob.in/48x9ar/B/
