Henize 70 - Super Bubble In Dorado

[AstroViking (Steve)]

Hi all,

UPDATE: more data captured and new image located further down the conversation thread.

Thanks again to Brian for identifying this DSO. I need to improve my Google-fu when it comes to searching for the more obscure DSO catalogues, I think...

In case you want to go hunting for it yourself, it’s known as the ‘Super Bubble In Dorado’ and has been catalogued as ‘Henize 70’, N70, LHA 120-N44, and DEL-L-301. (Confusingly, Wikipedia gives it the catalogue ID of ‘LHA 120-N70’.)

It’s an emission nebula and ‘super bubble’ that may also have characteristics of being a super-nova remnant (SNR). The scientists are not in agreement about exactly what it is.

Size-wise, it’s been measured at about 300 light-years in diameter and about 170,000 light-years away.. That’s one seriously big bubble...

If you're curious, you can read more here: https://astrodrudis.com/n70-henize-70/

It's also a NASA APOD, back in February of 2019. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap190204.html

Image data:

* Gain: 120
* Offset: 10
* Temperature: 0 degrees C
* Exposure: 120 seconds
* Frames: 60 Lights, 25 Darks, (120 minutes integration in total)
* Binning: 2x2
* Filter: Optolong L-Enhance
* Processed with SiriL (stacking, pre-processing and star removal with Starnet++) then finished in Affinity Photo v2

* Equipment: SW72ED @ 420mm / HEQ5-Pro / ASI183MC-Pro / SV165+SV305 / Kstars/Ekos

This one calls for a longer focal-length telescope and more data. The latter I can do easily enough, the former will have to wait.

Cheers,
V

[gb44 (Glenn)]

Cool pic.
Its a bit like the skull nebula.
I wonder if Google Lens would find this nebula. I cant use it as my phone aint working right but I'd be interested to know.

GlennB

[Plossl68 (Paul)]

Cool target and a great shot. Great sense of 3D / depth to the bubble!

[Dave882 (David)]

Very cool mate. Thanks for the extra info too

[AstroViking (Steve)]

Thanks folks!

Does anyone with a longer focal length 'scope want to have a look at this one? I'd love to see a closer view of it.

Cheers,
V.

[AstroViking (Steve)]

UPDATE:

I was able to grab another 2 hours of data (as well as proper Flat/DarkFlat calibration frames) last Thursday night. So I now have a total of 4 hours on this one.

I can see more detail in the bubble's tendrils of gas now, and I processed it slightly differently to try and increase the contrast between the bubble and it's background / surroundings.

I also found out that it has appeared as NASA's APOD back in June 1998! See https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap980613.html

Again - I'd love to see what a longer FL scope will produce.

Cheers,
V.

[Plossl68 (Paul)]

Impressive to see the extra details from another 2 hours data!

[Anth10 (Anthony M)]

That’s super impressive, nice wide field indeed.
One thing I like aside from the bubble itself is the rich star field surrounding it. I recall difficulty in locating this from my backyard back on 2018 - I’ve attached an image I took using 1250mm focal length at f5. Yours has some interesting detail in the bubble and nice framing to incorporate the other emission to the right.
Nice work.


Anth

[AstroViking (Steve)]

Paul and Anth, thanks for the kind words!

That's a great image, too, Anth - thanks for sharing.

Cheers,
V