Captured from the Bortle 5 skies of Soutomaior, Spain, this image presents the Flaming Star Nebula (IC 405) in a vivid balance of narrowband and broadband (RGB) data collected over several nights. IC 405, located around 1,500 light-years away in the constellation Auriga, is both an emission and reflection nebula. It owes its striking red and blue hues to the young star AE Aurigae, which energizes the surrounding hydrogen gas to glow while also reflecting light off nearby dust. To enhance the fine details within its swirls and wisps, the image is processed to soften the overpowering H-alpha emissions, allowing a more nuanced portrait of the nebula’s structure. This approach reveals the intricate network of gas and dust that makes the Flaming Star Nebula a stunning feature of Auriga’s celestial landscape.

Image Description and Details :

This image shows the area of sky above the constellation of Orion. In the top right, looking like a comma is the Flaming Star Nebula. Just to the left of it is the Tadpole Nebula. If you look at the high resolution image on my website you can see the tadpole shaped structures inside it that give it its name. To the upper left is Sharpless 232 which I always think looks like a person running in a hamster wheel! To the bottom left is the large supernova remnant Simeis 147 aka the Spaghetti Nebula. This is a 16 image mosaic taken at a focal length of 530mm with a 4 inch refractor. 171 hours of light was collected through H-alph, SII and OIII filters.

Copyright: Alistair Symonu

Image Description and Details : Telescope: FSQ-106ED
Camera: QSI 583ws
Guide: EZG-60 - ZWO ASI 120 MC
Filters: BAADER LRGB, ASTRONOMIK H-ALPHA
Exposure: 42 x 10 MIN LUM, 11 X 5 MIN RED B2, 11 X 5 MIN GREEN B2, 11 X 5 MIN BLUE B2,10 X 10 MIN H-ALPHA
Software: MAXIM DL, PHOTOSHOP CC, PIXINSIGHT
Location: ESCOBAR DE CAMPOS, LEON (SPAIN)

Copyright: César Blanco

Image Description and Details :

The Tadpoles Nebula (IC410) and Flaming Star Nebula in the Constellation of Auriga.I took this HaSHO image last week on a very rare almost clear night. In fact it was the clearest night in northern Vermont since last July!. Rather than completing some earlier projects I thought I’d shoot something entirely new, and go for these subjects as they (almost) fit on the same frame at 620mm focal length..The Tadpoles Nebula is so called due to the two light colored tadpole shaped dust and gas clouds that look like they are swimming upwards to the center of the nebula. These are star forming regions, similar to the famous “Pillars of creation” imaged by Hubble in the Eagle Nebula.To get an idea of scale each tadpole is 10 light years long!, more than twice the distance the earth is from its nearest stellar neighbor, Proxima Centauri.To the left is the Flaming Star nebula ( IC 405) which surrounds the variable star AE Aurigae. AE Aurigae is a “runaway” star ejected from gravitational perturbations in the Orion Nebula more than 2 million years ago.Its interesting to note that although these two nebulae appear close together the flaming star is 1500 Light years distant, whereas the Tadpoles Nebula is 12,000 lightyears away and over 100 light years across.This image is processed in the “Hubble Palette where red is aligned with Sulphur emissions, Green with Hydrogen , and Blue with Oxygen .Tech Data : Celestron RASA 11”, CGX Mount, ZWO ASI 6200MMPro cooled (Mono) camera.Ha 12 x 5min, OIII 18 x 5 mins, SII 9 x 5 mins, darks, flats, bias framesSoftware: Stacked in DSS, Processed in Pixinsight and PS 2021



Copyright: Richard Whitehead

Image Description and Details :

Comet C/2020 M3 Atlas in emerald green color passes by the main colorful nebula of the Constellation Auriga in this image captured and processed from Grand Mesa Observatory on 12/8/2020 by Terry Hancock and Tom Masterson. This image was captured using QHYCCD’s latest offering the QHY410C Back Illuminated Full Frame one shot color CMOS camera that we have the honor of testing. The main nebulae in this image are the Flaming Star Nebula (IC 405) the comma shaped red and white/purple nebula to the top and right along with the Tadpole Nebula (NGC 1893) located to the center left. Comet C/2020 M3 Atlas is seen almost ‘touching’ the Tadpole Nebula in this image. Distance-wise Comet C/2020 M3 Atlas was a mere 3.74 light-minutes from Earth when this image was captured while the Flaming Star Nebula is about 1,400 light-years distant and further still is the Tadpole Nebula which is roughly 12,400 light-years away. Technical Info:Total Integration time 3.3 hours Location: Grand Mesa Observatory.com Purdy Mesa, Colorado

Date of capture: December 9th, 2020Color RGGB 200 min, 100 x 120 sec Camera: QHY410C Back Illuminated Full Frame Color CMOS Gain 0, Offset 76Read Mode: High Gain Mode Calibrated with Dark, Bias and Flat Frames Optics: Takahashi E-180 Astrograph Image Acquisition software Maxim DL6Pre-Processed in Pixinsight Post Processed in Photoshop


Copyright Information: Terry Hancock and Tom Masterson