Cat's Paw Nebula and Lobster Nebula Region: The two large objects in this field are NGC6334, the Cat's Paw Nebula (on the left) and NGC6357, the Lobster Nebula on the right. Both of these are large star-forming regions; the Cat's Paw Nebula is noted for the extreme rate of star formation taking place there, and NGC6357 has some of the most massive stars in our galaxy. The Cat's Paw Nebula is approximately 5,500 light years from us, about 50 light years across. For scale, it appears slightly larger than a full moon. The Lobster Nebula is about 8,000 light years from us, and about 400 light years across (including all the faint stuff). The difference in colors is a result of the significantly greater distance the Lobster Nebula is from us; both nebulae are so reddish (as opposed to having some component of blue and green), because they both lie along our galactic plane, and the interstellar dust attenuates blue and green much more than it does red. The bright streak on the far left is NGC6302; a slightly more detailied image of this is "here."

Technical Information:

(HaR)(HaR)GB: This is a two-panel mosaic. The left part: 420:345:225:225 Luminance layer consists of a blending of data taken through an Ha filter and a red-pass filter; red channel consists of a blending of the Ha and red-filtered data; all Ha-filtered images were 30-minute exposures through an Astrodon Type Ha filter; individual color images were 15-minute exposures through Astrodon filters. All images unbinned.
The right part: 450:390:195:195 Luminance layer consists of a blending of data taken through an Ha filter and red-pass filter; red channel consists of a blending of the Ha and red-filtered data; all Ha-filtered images were 30-minute exposures through an Astrodon Ha filter; individual color images were 15-minute exposures through Astrodon filters. All images unbinned.

Equipment: Takahashi FSQ106 quadruplet fluorite apochromatic refractor, SBIG STL11000M with internal color filter wheel (Astrodon Generation 2 filter set), on a Bisque Paramount ME German Equatorial Mount.

Image Acquisition/Camera Control: Maxim DL, controlled with ACP, working in concert with TheSky v6.

Processing: All images calibrated (darks and dawn flats), aligned, combined and deconvolved (data used in the luminance layer only) in CCDStack. Color combine in Photoshop CS5. Finish work (curves and levels, adjustment of contrast, High Pass Filter/Layer Mask, and some sharpening of the luminance layer) was done in Photoshop CS5.

Location: Data acquired remotely from Fair Dinkum Skies, Moorook, South Australia.

Date: Images taken on many nights in May and June, 2013. Image posted on June 10, 2013.

CCD Chip temperature: -20C

Copyright 2013 Mark de Regt

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