This is part of IC 410, an emission nebula located in the constellation of Auriga at an estimated distance of 10,000 light-years. The nebula itself surrounds a young galactic cluster of stars that was formed in the interstellar cloud about 4 million years ago. The hot, bright cluster of stars energize the glowing gasses in the area and the intense radiation and stellar winds of the cluster have sculpted the two tadpole-shaped structures located in the lower right of this image. Composed of denser, cooler globules and knots of gas and dust, the tadpoles are about 10 light-years long and is a stellar nursery of ongoing star formation. Their "heads" are outlined by bright edges of ionized gas while their tails trail away from the cluster's central region.
To capture this image, I combined three images that captured ionized Hydrogen Alpha, Oxygen III and Sulfur II - the three elements that most easily showcase this nebula complex. I then added in the stars which I captured using regular white light (red, green and blue).
Scope: Celestron C11 EdgeHD f/7
Mount: iOptron CEM120 EC2
Camera: ASI 1600MM Pro chilled to -15C
Focuser/Rotator: Moonlite Litecrawler
Filters: Baader narrow band and RGB
Guidance: Lodestar X2 via Celestron Off Axis Guider
Control system: Kstars OSX
Post processing: PixInsight
Exposures:
- Ha: 60 x 5 minutes.
- OIII: 120 x 5 minutes.
- SII: 80 x 5 minutes.
- Red: 60 x 1 minute.
- Green: 60 x 1 minute.
- Blue: 80 x 1 minute.