Quote:
Originally Posted by Quark
Hi Stuart,
Thanks for your thoughts on this. I think you may have hit the nail on the head, so to speak, regarding the effect a polarizing filter might have on a reflection neb, or at least one as dim as this one.
Regards
Trevor
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Ah...you have a polarising filter...no wonder. Blue nebulae, as you know, are from the reflected light of stars off very small dust grains in the nebs. They preferentially scatter the blue light (Raleigh Scattering) at the expense of other wavelengths. What you may not know is that light is plane polarised as well. This polarisation depends on the size and shape of the grains in the nebula, the amount of light they scatter, the luminosity of the illuminating stars, etc. Your polarising lens is probably blocking all the light from the neb. I would take it off....however, here's a little experiment for you to try. Try changing the orientation of the polarising plane by rotating the lens and see what you get. You may find Brunhilde suddenly appears
