The Unusually Shaped Red Rectangle Nebula - HD44179 - Adam Lundie - Eatons Hill Observatory

The Unusually Shaped Red Rectangle Nebula - HD44179

14-Dec-2015
The Unusually Shaped Red Rectangle Nebula - HD44179 thumbnail
The Unusually Shaped Red Rectangle Nebula - HD44179
The unusual shape of the Red Rectangle is likely due to a thick dust torus which pinches the otherwise spherical outflow into tip-touching cone shapes. Because we view the torus edge-on, the boundary edges of the cone shapes seem to form an X. The distinct rungs suggest the outflow occurs in fits and starts.
More information: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Rectangle_Nebula

Image:

  • 10x 300s red bin1x1 + 16x flat + 37x dark + 120x bias
  • 6x 600s red bin1x1 + 16x flat + 37x dark + 120x bias
  • 8x 180s green bin1x1 + 16x flat + 37x dark + 120x bias
  • 7x 180s blue bin1x1 + 16x flat + 37x dark + 120x bias

Total exposure time: 2 hours 35 minutes.

Hardware:

  • Celestron EdgeHD 1100 with CGEM DX mount
  • QSI 683-wsg Camera @ -15°C
  • Astronomik Type 2c LRGB filters
  • Orion StarShoot Autoguider
  • Starlight Xpress Adaptive Optics

Location:

  • Orange zone in Brisbane, Australia. (Bortle 7)
  • Above average seeing + new moon.

Software:

  • Captured with AstroArt 6
  • Guiding with PHD2 + PHD_Dither
  • Aladin 8.0: Planning & camera alignment.
  • CCDInspector: Image analysis & rejection
  • CCDStack 2+: Calibrate, align, normalize, stack, curves, create artificial luminance, combine RGB.
  • Photoshop CC: Reduce noise, high pass filter, shadows/highlights, integrate L+RGB, color balance.

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