|
I first encountered
this enigmatic object in the early 80's in Vehrenbergs Atlas
of Deep Sky Splendors as a "Round, nameless nebula",
and thought one day, I would do a really deep shot to see what
secrets this nebula would show. 40 years later, I'm finally getting
around to doing it. When I started shooting this object with
the Halpha filters, its true appearance began to emerge.
The round "Stromgren
Sphere" type nebula is in a field of richly colored Milky
Way stars, and faint emission nebula. Some dark Bok globules
are inside the nebula, and at the bottom here, a linear ray of
nebulosity emerges from the core of the nebula. What could this
be? Perhaps a newly forming solar system ejecting jets out of
the poles. There seems to be no information about this feature
I could find.
This is the longest
set of exposures I have ever done so far on a single object,
and due to poor winter weather, took several months to finish.
|
