Little Gem Nebula NGC6818
When stars like the Sun are near end of life, they send their outer layers into space to create glowing clouds of gas, a planetary nebulae. This ejection of mass is uneven, and planetary nebulae can have complex shapes. NGC 6818 shows knotty filament-like structures and distinct layers of material, with a bright and enclosed central bubble surrounded by a larger, more diffuse cloud.
Scientists believe that the stellar wind from the central star propels the outflowing material, forming the elongated shape of NGC 6818. As this stellar wind moves through the slower-moving cloud it creates particularly bright spots in the bubble's outer layers.
Source: Wikipedia
Image:
- 54x 600s 6nm H-α
- 49x 600s 6nm O-III
Total integration 8 hours 35 minutes. Focal length: 2800mm
Hardware:
- Celestron 11" Edge HD
- Skywatcher EQ8-Rh mount
- QSI 683-ws8 Camera @ -15°C
- Astronomik 6nm H-α, 6nm O-III filters
- Starlight Xpress Lodestar X2 Autoguider
- Innovations Foresight ONAG
- Starlight Instruments Feather Touch Focuser
Location:
- Exposed over 5 nights between 30th June to 7th August 2021
- Orange zone in Brisbane, Australia. (Bortle 7)
Software:
- Planning & camera alignment with Aladin 10
- Captured with TheSkyX Professional
- Guiding with PHD2
- PixInsight: Calibrate, align, integrate, dymanic background extraction, HOO combination, noise reduction, HDR multiscale transform, histogram, curves, crop.