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Old 08-02-2019, 01:33 PM
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Geoff45 (Geoff)
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Join Date: Jul 2006
Location: Sydney
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RCW 32 aka Gum 15 aka Southern Trifid

This is not a very commonly imaged object and not the easiest to process.

Full res image here

It was taken last Sunday at Wiruna. The on-again off-again clouds were a pest but I managed to get about 5 hours of good data out of 7 hours of imaging.


Details:
Telescope: 12.5" Plane wave CDK
Mount: AP900
Camera: FLI 16803 Proline
Exposure: 60 min L, 50 min R and G, 60 min B and 70 min Ha.
FOV: 49' x 49'
Acquisition: MaximDL

Processing: PixInsight


For the luminance I made a superluminance by combining the L, R, G and B masters. The Ha was eased into the red channel near the end of processing using PixInsight's NRGBCombination script.



It's hard to get much info about this object, but here is a combination of bits of stuff I could find:
Gum 15, also known as RCW 32, is about 3,000 light-years away in the constellation of Vela. It is shaped by aggressive winds flowing from the stars within and around it. The bright star near the center of the nebula is HD 74804 which is responsible for ionising the gas. The central region shows dark patches of dust, while deeper pictures show some faint reflection structures crossing it that are only dimly visible in this picture. The various combinations of emission, reflection and dark nebulae make the nebula resemble a larger and fainter version of the better known Trifid Nebula.
Attached Thumbnails
Click for full-size image (Gum 15_february_2019_small_v3.jpg)
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