Northern Trifid Nebula, NGC 1579
The Northern Trifid Nebula is located in the Perseus constellation about 2,100 light-years away and 3 light-years across. The northern Trifid appears to be an emission nebula, but is comprised of several reflection nebula. The larger red nebula is actually muting and reflecting light from a central massive star. Notice the 3 arms of the dark portion of the nebula blocking starlight.
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Equipment
- Celestron 11 on a CGEM mount, Atik 460EX monochrome, Starizona HyperStar, Orion off axis guider, and Starlight Xpress Lodestar X2 autoguider for guiding.
Image
- Red: 41X 45 Sec. exposures = 31 Minutes
Green: 36X 45Sec. exposures = 27 Minutes
Blue: 36X 45Sec. exposures = 27 Minutes
Green: 41X 45 Sec. exposures = 31 Minutes
Total: 88 Minutes
Full size image scale at a distance of 2100 light-years
- Width: 4096 Pixels = 114.2 arcminutes
- Height: 3247 Pixels = 90.5 arcminutes
Object size (full size image) at a distance of 2100 light-years:
- Image width and height = 69.7 X 55.3 light-years
- Pixel size = 100 Billion (1.0E+11) miles, or 360 Billion (3.60E+11) kilometers.
Software
- Nebulosity for image capture, calibration, stacking, and preliminary processing. PHD2 for scope guiding. Final processing is with Photoshop CS5.1. Noiseware for noise reduction.
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