Rick,

at least the permanent bad weather is the same over here if that gives some
consolation ;-)
Still you managed to get a remarkable picture, looks really good. I just
checked in Guide9, if I use the Celestron RASA I can even fit vdB 35 (nice
blue colour contrast) into the FOV.

Stefan


"WA0CKY" schrieb im Newsbeitrag ...


Rarely seen vdB 37 is a rather red reflection nebula. It is lit by HIP
24716 a 7.74 magnitude M2 giant star. The nebula is in northern Orion.
The Sky shows the star's Hipparcos parallax distance as being about 600
light years. This would then be about the distance to this nebula.

Normally reflection nebula are blue. This is because even a red star
shining through a dust cloud usually turns the nebula blue for the same
reason our white sun turns the sky blue. Blue light is scattered by the
dust while red and much of the green light of the star passes through
with little scattering. This reddens the star, and why our sun is
considered yellow when it is really white. But if the star has no blue
light and is behind then the red and green scatter giving a rather pale
yellow to orange color to the nebula depending on how red the star is.
But if the star is in front of the nebula it lights the nebula much the
same as a red bulb lights a white wall and the nebula picks up the
colors of the star itself unless the dust has a color of its own. Since
that tends to be neutral to sometimes slightly red the result is a red
reflection nebula. A rare object but it appears vdB 37 may be one such
nebula. It could be my strong red color is due to how poor my green
data was but I added green back to get star colors right and that should
have compensated fairly well. Still a retake under better conditions is
in order.

Three asteroids managed to sneak into the image. Not surprising as
northern Orion is quite close to the Ecliptic where many of them reside.
That I picked up just three is due to the night being very poor.
Nothing new as if I waited for a good night I'd still be waiting. They
just aren't happening. Several I'd normally pick up are in the frame
according to the Minor Planet Center but I see them so weakly I didn't
try to bring them out. The also meant much of the nebulosity in the
field was lost and the brighter stars had huge halos from shining
through gunky skies. This caused them to have huge rings and bloat
badly. I sort of dealt with these but the result is some wonky looking
brighter stars. Also my green color data was hit by clouds and nearly
non existent. I had to use a lot of pseudo green so the color is quite
suspect. I retook this one several times but this first attempt was the
only one with usable data. Another for the reshoot list if this
miserable weather ever changes. After many months of it I'm beginning
to think it is permanent.

14" LX200R @ f/10, L=4x10' RGB=2x10', STL-11000XM, Paramount ME

Rick


--
WA0CKY