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Astrophotography

The Tulip Nebula

I’m back at the Slim Buttes. I’ve had a couple of nights with good conditions for astrophotography. It was very enjoyable being out under the dark skies with no light pollution whatsoever and no moon. I selected a target that I’ve been wanting to do for a long time, the Tulip Nebula in Cygnus. This is a summer target. Nights are short in summer, and clouds are common, so it is hard to get some of these summer targets. I have acquired some new software, StarXterminator and NoiseXterminator. With these I can remove the stars for processing and later add them back in. In a star rich field like this, the stars tend to overwhelm everything else. By processing them separately, I can get much better results. Noise reduction really helps a lot too.

Sh2-101, the Tulip Nebula, so called because it resembles a tulip when photographed with long exposures. It was catalogued by astronomer Stewart Sharpless in his 1959 catalog of nebulae. About 70 light years across and 6000 light years away, the Tulip Nebula is nearly surrounded by glowing clouds of ionized hydrogen gas. I only got about 3 hours of exposure so far, I’d like to get a lot more.

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