Surrounding this nebula are oceans of thicker dusty regions which do the opposite, entirely blocking out starlight in the visible spectrum. The Iris is a reflection nebula, or a collection of gas and dust which reflects nearby starlight. Upon later examination of the color image, I found a decent amount of background dust as well, which has since caused me to wonder just how worthwhile it is to pack up all my equipment and drive further out of the city - I may have to redefine what I consider to be a “dark” object to make future trips more worth the time. Later when I had returned to Wichita, I shot the color data over a few more nights, completing what I needed to form this photo. For this reason, I focused on shooting with only my Luminance filter while at the dark site.
Color does not necessarily require the same quality of skies.
#Real reflection nebula plus#
When shooting an object in LRGB, or Luminance plus color (RGB), the Luminance channel holds all the details.
My strategy in capturing this object was to use the dark skies to my advantage as much as possible.
#Real reflection nebula drivers#
This image is also one of the first shot with my ASI1600MM-P I was only able to take this camera out for a few total hours for testing prior to making this trip, which was slightly risky considering the lack of any internet connection to download any missing drivers or updates. In some ways this mirrors how clouds appear in locations devoid of light pollution while near a city clouds will be plainly visible at night since they reflect light pollution, but absent this light they are merely dark voids which slowly move across the sky. Many online images will show the reflection nebula, but the only indication of the surrounding dark nebula are suspicious patterns of absent stars. The fact that the heads of the cometary clouds of IC2118 point northeast towards the association is strong support of that relationship.Having seen images of this object online taken from similar cameras and telescopes, I was confident that I could capture the reflection nebula itself, but the real test was how much of the darker background nebula would appear in the final image. The wind blown appearance and cometary shape of the bright reflection nebula is highly suggestive of a strong association with the high mass luminous stars of Orion OB1. As the supershell expands into the interstellar medium, favorable circumstances for star formation occur. The molecular clouds of IC 2118 are probably juxtaposed to the outer boundaries of the vast Orion-Eridanus bubble, a giant supershell of molecular hydrogen blown by the high mass stars of the Orion OB1 association. In fact candidates for pre-main sequence stars and some classic T-Tauri stars have been found deep within the nebula. Radio observations show substantial carbon monoxide emission throughout parts of IC 2118, an indicator of the presence of molecular clouds and star formation in the nebula. The nature of the dust particles, reflecting blue light better than red, is a factor in giving the Witch Head its blue color.
The nebula lies in the Eridanus Constellation, about 900 light-years from Earth. IC 2118 (also known as Witch Head Nebula due to its shape) is an extremely faint reflection nebula believed to be an ancient supernova remnant or gas cloud illuminated by nearby supergiant star Rigel in the constellation of Orion.
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