An interesting star field along the Milky Way in the constellation Vulpecula (the "fox"). The mottling and brownish color is due to the veritable infinitude of background stars as one looks in the direction of the edge of the Milky Way. Vdb126 is a reflection nebula that consists of the blue nebula in the center left of the image. It is associated with the hot B-class giant star (HD189218) directly behind it. The temperature is insufficient to ionize the surrounding hydrogen cloud, but it is sufficient to scatter photons traveling through the cloud in a process called Raleigh scattering. Generally, hydrogen atoms in the nebula scatter short-wavelength light (blue and violet) and let longer wavelengths (red, orange, yellow, green) pass through undisturbed. The result is that the nebula is bluish in color.
Also noteworthy in this image are: (1) The blue circle center right, which is another reflection nebula associated with the same star; (2) the dark nebula (black in color) that is interstellar gas that blocks what lies beyond.
Vd 126
Date Taken:September 15 -- October 14, 2015
Location Taken:Deep Sky West Observatory, New Mexico
Conditions of Location: Equipment Used:Takahashi FSQ-106 apochromatic refractor, Paramount ME mount, SBIG STL11000 CCD camera, Astrodon LRGB filters.
Processing Used:11.5 hours consisting of 10 min x 18 L, 10 min x 12 R, 10 min x 18 G, and 10 min x 20 B.
Distance from Location:2,400 light years
Constellation:Vulpecula
Other Link:
Just beautiful – thank you.