For the past week I have been putting a lot of time into dark nebulas. There are hundreds of them listed in Stellarium but almost no photos anywhere online to see what they look like. I tried for a few of the better- known dark nebulas, these are the ones with some bright stars lighting up the clouds. They are difficult targets; the dust is dim and it is hard to get enough exposure. With the C8 (at f6.3) it is nearly impossible but with the 500 mm lens at f4 I can get one nebula done in a couple of nights if all goes well. Framing is hard too, I can’t see the clouds in the images, all I can see is areas with no stars, obscured by the dust. Anyway, I will post some of the results below. As always, right click on an image and open in a new tab for a larger view.
The Helping Hand Nebula is a very faint dust cloud in Cassiopeia. It is made up of two main dark nebulas, LDN 1357 and LDN 1358. There are lots of other faint things in here too, some small reflection nebulas and other small dark nebulas. I was just happy to see that I was able to get the hand! This is in the Taurus Molecular Cloud. The main features are Barnard 7 (the dark nebula) and LBN 782, the blue reflection nebula. I added more exposure to NGC 1333, the Embryo Nebula. I think it looks pretty good and will leave it as is. Dark nebulas and reflection nebulas abound in this image of VdB 14 and VdB 15. This one was more difficult than I expect and I probably need a lot more exposure. VdB is a catalog of reflection nebula published by Sidney van den Bergh in 1966.A Gray Flycatcher at the golf course. It has been a long time since I’ve seen one here in the Ajo area. A Sharp-shinned Hawk at the golf course.
