ASTRO: FU Orionis, Barnard 35 and reflection nebula GN 05.42.6

GN 05.42.6 is a rather yellow reflection nebula around the pre-main
sequence star FU Orionis. The star is spectral type G3Iav so is a
mostly white star with a tinge of yellow. Apparently its light is
further reddened by dust to make the reflection nebula very yellow to
red in color. The complex is buried in the large arc shaped cloud
Barnard 35. My FOV when centered on FU Orionis missed much of the arc's
northern part but does capture the apex of the arc's far western extent.
Some claim the cloud is shaped by Lamda Orionis about 2.5 degrees to
the west. I find Lamda to be about 1055 light-years from us by
Hipparcos data. That would put the nebula over 40 light-years from it
at a minimum. O8 stars are powerful but are they that powerful? Maybe
as there seems to be nothing else closer with the energy to do the trick
and the H alpha emission is on the Lamda side.

The arc itself is LBN 878 best I can determine. The dark clouds at the
apex may be LDN 1594. Since Barnard nebula are dark I'm not sure what
his entry refers to. Its published coordinates 05h 45.5m +09°03' points
to a rather bright area two minutes southeast of FU Orionis.

FU Orinis shined at magnitude 16.5 for most of telescopic history. Then
in 1937 it suddenly brightened to magnitude 9.5. Since then it has
slowly brightened to 8.99. I found nothing on the reflection nebula. I
don't know if it existed before the brightening or not. I'll assume it
likely wasn't visible. It might be a 1937 version of McNeil's Nebula.
That appeared at the same time as its illuminating star.

Conditions were very poor the night I took this image. The color data
was very hard hit, especially the red frames. While the color of FU
Orionis is a good match to its spectral type the faint nebulosity was
down in the noise level due to clouds so highly suspect. I need to
revisit this one. Preferably with a scope that can capture more of the arc.

Barnard 35 was my first February, 2014 image taken February 1.
Conditions were so poor I should have not even tried that night. I gave
up after this one image even though it was about new moon so it wasn't
in the sky all night. Fortunately the month was better for imaging than
its first night.

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

Rick
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