Hey Folks,
Been sitting on this one for a while - but was distracted with interstate speaking gigs etc. so here is my version of NGC 2736 in Bicolour +RGB.
20 hrs data Ha/O3/RGB - 660/480/20/20/20 from my suburban local in Melbs.
Taken on the QSI 683 WSG8 and the new Sidereal Trading modded Skywatcher 10" f4 CF Newtonian on the TAK NJP mount.
Hershel's Ray is the brightest part of the huge Vela Supernova Remnant - travelling across space at at a cruizy 500,000 km/hr!
Moving from bottom to top in the frame near the centre of this image- thin, bright, braided filaments are actually long ripples in a cosmic sheet of glowing gas seen almost edge-on. The shock wave plows through interstellar space at over 500,000 kilometres per hour. Cataloged as NGC 2736, its elongated appearance suggests its popular name, the Pencil Nebula.
The Pencil Nebula is about 5 light-years long and 800 light-years away, but represents only a small part of the Vela supernova remnant. The Vela remnant itself is around 100 light-years in diameter, the expanding debris cloud of a star that was seen to explode about 11,000 years ago. Initially, the shock wave was moving at millions of kilometres per hour but has slowed considerably, sweeping up surrounding interstellar material.
In the narrowband, wide field image, red and blue colours track the characteristic glow of ionised hydrogen and oxygen atoms. (APOD)
High res
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