Snake Nebula Region: This is a region of gas and dust which obscures the light from the rich starfields "behind" the gas and dust, toward the center of our galaxy. The twisted part in the middle of the frame is known as the "Snake Nebula." The Snake Nebula is estimated to be about 650 light years away from us, which would make the field of this photo about 40 light years across.
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Technical Information:
LRGB: 405:300:150:150; All images channels/layers consisted of combinations of 15-minute individual exposures
Equipment: Takahashi FSQ106, SBIG STL11000 (with Astrodon Generation 1 filters), on a Bisque Paramount ME German Equatorial Mount.
Image Acquisition/Camera Control:MaximDL, working in concert with TheSky v6, all controlled with ACP Observatory Control software.
Processing: All images calibrated (darks and dawn flats), aligned, sigma reject performed, and combined in CCDStack. Luminance layer deconvolved in CCDStack. Color combine in Photoshop. Finish work (curves and levels, contrast adjustments increasing saturation) was done in Photoshop CS5.
Location: Data acquired remotely from Fair Dinkum Skies, near Moorook, South Australia.
Date: Images taken from late June to early August 2011.
CCD Chip temperature: Varied from -15C