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Old April 25th 13, 08:09 PM posted to alt.binaries.pictures.astro
Rick Johnson[_2_]
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Posts: 3,085
Default ASTRO: Gum 85 aka Sh2-54

The Tower of Babel that is the many catalog names for the same object
got me again. Seems I entered this object on my to-do list twice, once
under Gum 85 and once under SH2-54. The result is the computer that
decides what to take, when, dutifully took SH2-54 back in August of 2010
and then again in August of 2012 took Gum 85. Processing so many images
I didn't catch it until I finished the processing. Seeing this version
is an improvement over the first I decided to run it. Besides, this was
one of the few images taken under rather good skies all of 2012. The
text below is mostly from that first posting which can be seen at
http://www.spacebanter.com/attachmen...tid=3710&stc=1 .

Sh2-54/Gum 85 is a huge star forming region in Serpens Cauda. It is
part of the Serpens OB2 Association, a large star forming region. I
couldn't find any distance for it but most consider it related to the
open star cluster NGC 6604 (a couple degrees out of my frame). That
does seem to have a good distance measurement of 5,500 light-years based
on Hipparcos and other sources. Though I've found a very wide range on
the net these seem to be based on older, less accurate measurements. For
more on this area of the sky see:
http://www.ifa.hawaii.edu/publicatio...rth_08-209.pdf


Sh2-54 is far too large for my system being about 9 square degrees in
area. It does have a brighter area that does fit my image scale so
that's the part I centered on. Note there are several "elephant trunk"
features in the image. They all point back to NGC 6604 confirming its
association with this nebula.

You can see the entire nebula at Dean Salman's website:
http://sharplesscatalog.com/Sharpless.aspx?Sharp=54

Normally I display images with north up. I am making an exception here
and have oriented it south up. This is because my sick brain sees this
nebula looking like a chihuahua making a rather rude gesture with its
front legs. Maybe it should be known as the Rude Chihuahua Nebula?
Since a chihuahua's leg can't bend in that direction without breaking
that may explain why it is mad. I should mention I'm no fan of that
breed. My maternal grandmother carried one wherever she went (7 decades
before Paris Hilton). I was 4 and told to kiss grandma good night. The
dog chomped on my nose so hard I needed quite a few stitches. Next
night I was told to do the same. I put up quite a fight but lost. This
time the bandages helped, I only needed two stitches replaced. A couple
days later my cat killed the blankety blank dog much to my glee. The
dog annoyed it one too many times. Cat was 20 pounds of muscle (mostly
Maine Coon), chihuahua 3.5 pounds of trembling "Jello" and sharp teeth.
So is it getting back at me from the skies? My wife claims it looks
like a pig but she had no encounters with that chihuahua.

14" LX200R @ f/10, L=4x10' RG=2x10'B=3X10' STL-11000XM, Paramount ME

Rick
--
Prefix is correct. Domain is arvig dot net

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