The faint Stingray Nebula

[NZUSA]

This is the Stingray Nebula, or officially SH2-63. SH is the designation from the Sharpless Catalogue which lists emission nebula. It is in the constellation of Sagittarius. It is a very faint, dim and dusty nebula, a collection of dust in this case, located about 700 light years away. The Stingray is so faint this final image is a combination of about 20 hours of images. I shot it last year and only now have a few more processing skills in order to bring out the very faint detail. I find these dark nebula aren't as showy as other emission nebula, but are still quite interesting, subtle and challenging to both image and process. The Astrobin link is : https://www.astrobin.com/52va69/ .

[graham.hobart]

I love this Jim- commented on Astrobin but its brilliant!
Graham

[Ryderscope]

Good work Jim. I have tried this one previously without success because, as you say, it is very faint. Definitely needs the extra exposure times.

[Leo.G]

Beautiful!

[NZUSA]

Thanks for the compliments guys. I found the processing the most difficult part of this image - that is getting it just right.

[bluesilver]

Very nicely done.
It kind of reminds me of the teltak from the Stargate tv sci-fi series

[astronobob]

Fascinating appearance, like a demon from the darkness.
Very cool image and Target indeed..

[TrevorW]

That really stung me, :)