After Arp 157 I'm taking a short break from Arp galaxies to process a couple other things I took last winter. Here are Sharpless 2-235 and PK 173.7+02.7. The first is an emission nebula while the latter is a planetary nebula, at least it is so classified. They are located in the constellation of Auriga, just north of M36 so you know I took them some time ago and am just getting around to processing them. There's some major confusion as to the identities of these objects. There's some major confusion as to the identities of these objects. Even the normally accurate SIMBAD seems to have some problems here. Best I can determine SH2-235 is the large brilliant object that dominates the center of my image. The planetary is the orange object below it. However both SIMBAD and NED seem to think the planetary is SH2-235 and give the odd name of [KC97c] G173.6+02.8 to the Sharpless object. Yet Sharpless' description of 2-235 definitely identifies the big object as being the right one. The planetary is also identified in some catalogs as an HII emission nebula rather than a planetary. SIMBAD shows the location of the planetary as a molecular cloud full of masers which are microwave lasers often found in regions of star birth. This argues for the HII classification though the odd orange color is rare in HII regions but not unheard of. Also there are a lot of Herbig Haro objects in the area. Again these are new stars not dying ones that a planetary signifies. Looking for a Ph.D. thesis? Straightening this mess out might be one.

SH2-235 is considered to be caused by the collision of two vast molecular clouds. The collision has triggered a great amount of star formation that is only seen in deep dust penetrating infra red light. It is about 1800 parsecs (5900 light years) away by some estimates I found. It is part of a much larger complex consisting of several far larger Sharpless objects. All too big for my system. The faint H alpha seen in the upper left corner is a very small part of SH2-232. Even fainter tendrils from SH2-231 can be seen coming in from the right. They, along with SH2-233 way off to the right of my image are all part of the same complex. SH-2-235 is caused to glow by the brilliant 09 star near it core.

There's an asteroid in the image. It appears to be two lines on either side of a star just of the NE (upper left) edge of SH-235 as if I'm trying to point out the star. That's because I took 40 minutes of luminosity data, then 60 minutes of color data followed by 40 more minutes of luminosity and 30 more minutes of color data. Since the color data made a mess of the star's color it was subtracted out during processing. This makes the gap in the trail, which by coincidence jumped the star. The asteroid is (51850) 2001 OJ92 at magnitude 18.5.

Attached image at 1.5" per pixel, linked image at 1" per pixel

Full size image with less compression:
http://www.spacebanter.com/attachmen...tid=2472&stc=1

14" LX200R @ f/10, L=8x10' binned 2x2 RGB=3x10' binned 3x3, STL=11000XM, Paramount ME

Rick

Attached Images

SH2-235L8X10rgb3X10X3R-67-7.jpg (142.4 KB, 22 views)

It's like a rose with a pearl inside. Exquisite. I believe I have found my new wallpaper, if you don't object?
Good luck and clear skies.

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Wow its a beauty! Rick, The so-called planetary is the first one I have seen at this color are masers this color?. And the emission nebula just stands out, The two stars (binary) at the center are they in the center or just in front of the nebula?. Overall great info and a very beautiful image. Clear Skies my friend.

Masers are microwave lasers so can only be seen by radio telescopes. They emit no visible light by definition. None are plotted at its exact position but they are within a few seconds of arc of it. Why the odd color I don't know, maybe its my processing though I didn't do any local color balancing. There was a green gradient that I had to remove. You still see a sign of it causing the star at the lower right to have a greenish halo and a few stars to be a bit too green. Seems I put in the green filter upside down after cleaning. That caused nasty halos. I took a couple nights images before realizing the problem and turning it over. Instructions say for the coated side to be toward the scope but I can't see the coating on that filter. It's obvious on the red and barely visible on blue. So I've put blue back upside down as well but not this night. I don't think that caused the orange but add green to HII and it could turn a bit orange. I see nothing bright enough in the area to do that however.

Rick

Thanks much for the extra info, You mentioned about the halo on the green channel well i have this problem but actually it looks like the secondary shadow disk almost in the center. I have reseated, tighten the inner nut ring holder and only present on this filter. Any help will be appreciated. Clear Skies