Dying Fast and Slow
Image Details:
This region is located off the edge of the Perseus constellation and features a pair of nebulae of almost equal apparent size which were created from 2 stars at the end stage of their lives. Sharpless 216 on the left (distance: 420 lightyears) is a Planetary Nebula (often called the “Second Closest Planetary”), a type of nebula created over long periods of time as star ages and sheds its mass into space. Our own Sun will create a similar nebula in about 5 billion years.
On the right is Sharpless 221 (distance: 2,600 lightyears), but unlike the gentler and lower-intensity processes which create Planetary Nebulae this is instead a remnant of a much more violent Supernova. Stars using nuclear fusion to turn Hydrogen into heavier elements and their mass is proportional to how far they can reach down the Periodic Table of Elements. Stars with more than 8 times the mass of our own Sun can reach Iron; an element heavy enough that it does not produce any net energy. Once this happens the star collapses under its own gravity (sometimes at a decent fraction of the speed of light) and the rebounding explosion may outshine the light of all the stars in the galaxy. This Supernova (HB9) likely happened 6,500 years ago and some believe it to be depicted in cave drawings as a second Sun.
Equipment:
William Optics Star71-II Petzval APO (345mm Focal Length, F/4.9)
ZWO ASI6200MM-P, Antlia Filters
Hypertuned Celestron CGEM-II
Autoguiding: Orion 50mm Guidescope + ZWO ASI174MM
Exposures:
Red, Green, Blue: 90, 90, 90 x 120” (Total: 9h)
Hydrogen-Alpha 3nm: 205 x 300” (Total: 17h 5m)
Oxygen-III 3nm: 222 x 300” (Total: 18h 30m)
Misc Details:
Capture Software: AstrophotographyTool, PHD2 (guiding), Celestron CPWI (mount control), Pegasus Powerbox (dew heater control, power management)
Processing Software: PixInsight
Taken from: Wichita, KS, Bortle 5
Capture Dates: 18, 21-22 November, 10, 13, 17 December, 13, 25-26 January 2023
