Observation by John Hughes: Lower’s Nebula

Uploaded by

Mr John William Hughes

Observer

John Hughes

Observed

2022 Jan 05 - 20:00

Uploaded

2022 Jan 10 - 20:26

Objects

Sharpless 261

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Constellation

Orion

Field centre

RA: 06^h08^m
Dec: +15°44'
Position angle: +1°21'

Field size

1°45' × 1°20'

Equipment

William Optics Z103 refractor
ZWO ASI1600mm Pro Cooled camera
Chroma 1.25” RGB filters
Chroma 1.25” 3nm Ha filters
SkyWatcher EQ6R-Pro mount

Exposure

300s, Gain 139, Offset 30

Location

North Essex

Target name

Lower’s Nebula

Title

Lower’s Nebula

About this image

So named after father and son amateur astronomers, Harold and Charles Lower who discovered this HII region in 1939. It is also a member of the Stuart Sharpless catalogue where it is designated Sh2-261.

This emission nebula is located in the constellation, Orion and can be found North of Betelguese. It is approximately 2,900 light years distant, 26 light years across and has a visual magnitude of +10.

Being situated in Orion it is surprising that it was not discovered sooner but given the competition from M42 and the Flame and Horse Head nebulae, it is not unexpected that this remains an infrequently photographed object.

Data

HaRGB Composite with subframes made up as follows 36:12:12:12.

Exposure time 300s.

Darks x 50; flats x 25 and dark flats x 25.

Files associated with this observation

Sh2-261_HaRGB_WB.jpg (1.6 MB)

Like this image

Manolo_Rodriguez, Martina McGovern, Graham Winstanley, Simon Paul Davis

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