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wayne anderson
01-03-2017, 10:55 PM
During those very hot nights 2 weeks ago i set up the scope for imaging, i thought it was a potentially usless pursuit as the conditions were not good for imaging but this was the result, i think i will try this one again on a cool clear night with much more data.

20 x 180sec subs iso 1600
20 x 90sec subs iso 1600
20 x 30sec subs iso1600

Total 100 minutes integration

Scope: 12inch Meade LX200 at f6.3 (alt/az de rotated and autoguided)
Camera: Sony Nex 5n DSLR (Full spectrum modified)
Processing: DeepSkyStacker, Startools, gimp



NGC 2014 & NGC 2020

NGC 2014 (irregularly-shaped and red) and its neighbor NGC 2020 (round and blue) are two brightly glowing nebulae in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC), a satellite galaxy to our own Milky Way, located about 163,000 light-years away from Earth in the southern constellation of Dorado, (the Swordfish).

The Large Magellanic Cloud is a very active star-forming galaxy. The most massive region of star formation is 30 Doradus (also known as the Tarantula Nebula). However, one of the more intriguing stellar nurseries is NGC 2014 (also known Henize 55).

NGC 2014 is an emission nebula – made up of mostly hydrogen gas – which contains an open cluster of hot, young stars, almost hidden in the brightest part of the nebula. The energetic ultraviolet light from these stars is absorbed by the hydrogen gas and produces the distinctive red glow from an enormous distance around the cluster.

As well as radiating strongly in ultraviolet light (a result of their high temperature), that causes these nebulae to glow brightly, massive young stars also produce vigorous stellar winds. Eventually they will disperse the hydrogen around them, evacuating a bubble-like nebula.

To the left of the open cluster in NGC 2014, a single brilliant and very hot, newborn star seems to have started this process, creating a cavity that appears encircled by a round, bubble-like nebula called NGC 2020. The distinctive bluish color of NGC 2020 is also created by radiation from the hot star – this time by ionizing oxygen instead of hydrogen.

The strikingly different colors of NGC 2014 and NGC 2020 are the result of both the different chemical makeup of the surrounding gas and the temperatures of the stars that are causing the clouds to glow. The distances between the stars and the respective gas clouds also play a role.

Mickoid
02-03-2017, 12:09 AM
That's a very nice shot Wayne and despite a warm night you have managed to keep noise under control. Interesting subject not many have targeted. I love the two different colours together, like M20 but further apart. We'll done.

wayne anderson
04-03-2017, 05:49 PM
Thanks Michael, to reduce noise i use 20 darks for each exposure time to create a master dark for stacking and also use the dithering setting during autoguiding. During processing the noise reduction in Startools gives good results.