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The Pelican Nnebula, also known as IC5070, lies about 1800 light years away near the constellation Cygnus, and is about about 30 light years across. Radiation from young energetic stars is transforming the Pelican's cold gas to hot gas, and the hot ionized gas glows in the deep red hydrogen-alpha (H-a) wavelength. Monochrome imaging through an H-a filter emphasizes the intricate details in the gas. This photograph captures a small area known as IC5067 in the "neck" of the pelican. To me, it looks like a volcano spewing fire, lava, and gas into the night; hence the title, "Hydrogen Volcano" (I added the color in Photoshop). Click here for the full image from which this was cropped. |
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Equipment |
Celestron 9¼" at f/5.6 on a Celestron CGE equatorial mount SBIG ST-8XM camera Optec IFW filter wheel with Astrodon TruBalance LRGB filters Optec TCF-S focuser Optec Pyxis camera rotator Imaging and autoguiding with MaxIm DL 4.07 |
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| Exposure |
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| Processing |
Dark and flat processing in CCDSoft Sigma-reject comgine Levels and curves, Neat Image, highpass filter in Photoshop CS Color-fill layer in Photoshop CS. |
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| Date and Location |
24 June 2005 (2 images @ -15°C in early morning; 8 images @ -10°C next evening) Montpelier, VA N 37° 49' 12", W 77° 42' 06" |