Rarely imaged on it's own, this diffuse nebula SH2-22 also cataloged as LBN 14 is located in Sagittarius, only 3 degrees southwest of it's famous neighbour - M8.
This is a ring nebula surrounding the O8 III giant 63 Ophiuchi (HD 16297, which lies at the edge of the Sgr OB1 association in the Sagittarius arm.
Reminiscent of butterfly wings, the nebula is rich in Ha. Although the nebula is about 80×50 arc minutes in size, little is known because of its faintness.
Wikipedia mentions the following... 63 Ophiuchi is an O-type giant star in the constellation Sagittarius. In 1983, astronomers from the Sternberg Astronomical Institute in Moscow, Russia identified a faint, shell-shaped nebula surrounding the star that was being excited by the star's energy. Named Sharpless 22, this ring-shaped nebula has a double-shell structure with an inner envelope spanning 45–50′ (9–18 pc), surrounded by a diffuse envelope some 65–80′ (14–29 pc) across.
I imaged this originally in Ha & S2, there being no obvious signs of O3.
However, this nebula now sits much more comfortably in the wider FOV of my new 0.7 Tak TOA35 reducer,
but being so late in the season, I've elected to use Ha and LRGB only.
Out of curiosity, I could only find two other images of this on the web and Astrobin and this one is perhaps the deepest to date.
Link to ASTROBIN
Taken from my Bortle 6-7 light polluted backyard in Melbourne during lockdown 6 - day 11, 492.5
