We've had fun spending ages examining magnificent Lambda Centauri nebulae by Chris, Paul, Geert, Mike S, Slawomir, DJScotty, and of course Fred's APOD.
They're all utterly different, the one to the next, but one thing is common: they all show much more OIII and SII than we did. Consequently, we've had a go at reprocessing our shot from last year. Red SII 2hrs, Green H-alpha 2hrs, Blue OIII 2hrs, all in 1hr subs.
Again, compared with say Eta Carinae, or the Tarantula, or similar extra-violent H-alpha regions with lots of OB stars that have recently gone supernova, the Lambda Centauri nebula is much quieter and gentler, and relatively lacking in SII and OIII. We are reluctant to force what genuinely isn't there, so we've aimed for a gentler look, broadly similar to Chris's but slightly wider field, and aiming to preserve some darkest detail in the largest Bok globules.
Others have identified the cigar as being smoked by a wily fox. We see a Shroedinger's Fox, in quantum superposition with a cat. Both faces are simultaneously smoking a smug post-prandial the cigar after having eaten the chicken. We do not approve. The cigar itself looks like a Pythonesque forearm and hand, pointing dramatically to the left.
There is a very fine shock front at the very bottom of the image, and some craggy, burning-coals cliff-face sort of stuff toward eight o'clock.
Screen-size version here.
Original (4 MB) version here.
Aspen CG16M on 20" PlaneWave. Field 36'arc. 3nM filters. All observatory and processing software written in house.
Best,
Mike n Trish