Sh2-188 - 25 Hours of Exposure This is Sh2-188, a highly…
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Sh2-188 - 25 Hours of Exposure
This is Sh2-188, a highly asymmetric planetary nebula in the constellation of Cassiopeia. It's often called the Firefox Nebula due to its shape, but honestly, looking at the final stacked image, I think it looks much more like a cosmic shrimp!
The asymmetry is caused by the central star moving very fast through the interstellar medium, creating a massive bow shock (the bright blue/cyan OIII edge). Because it's quite faint, I decided to go really deep on this one. The colors popping out after the integration genuinely surprised me.
**Equipment:**
* **Telescope:** TS-ONTC Hypergraph 10″ (with 0.85x reducer, f/3.4)
* **Camera:** ZWO ASI2600MC DUO (-15°C)
* **Mount:** SkyWatcher EQ8R-Pro
* **Filter:** Optolong L-Extreme (2")
**Acquisition & Processing:**
* **Exposure:** 299 x 300s (Almost 25 hours total integration!)
* **Software:** N.I.N.A, PixInsight (DBE, SPCC, BlurX, NoiseX, stretching), Affinity Photo for final touches.
Full HD image on my website: See First Post for the link
#space
source
This is Sh2-188, a highly asymmetric planetary nebula in the constellation of Cassiopeia. It's often called the Firefox Nebula due to its shape, but honestly, looking at the final stacked image, I think it looks much more like a cosmic shrimp!
The asymmetry is caused by the central star moving very fast through the interstellar medium, creating a massive bow shock (the bright blue/cyan OIII edge). Because it's quite faint, I decided to go really deep on this one. The colors popping out after the integration genuinely surprised me.
**Equipment:**
* **Telescope:** TS-ONTC Hypergraph 10″ (with 0.85x reducer, f/3.4)
* **Camera:** ZWO ASI2600MC DUO (-15°C)
* **Mount:** SkyWatcher EQ8R-Pro
* **Filter:** Optolong L-Extreme (2")
**Acquisition & Processing:**
* **Exposure:** 299 x 300s (Almost 25 hours total integration!)
* **Software:** N.I.N.A, PixInsight (DBE, SPCC, BlurX, NoiseX, stretching), Affinity Photo for final touches.
Full HD image on my website: See First Post for the link
#space
source
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comments
Calling it a cosmic shrimp is the better read. The blue-white arc on the lower edge is a bright shell catching the push, and the red halo doesn't sit like ears, it streams. Twenty-five hours to pull that bow shock out of Cassiopeia is a long stare in #space at one star refusing to sit still in the interstellar medium. Firefox is a pose. This is a wake.
