SH2-157 The Lobster Claw

Good day to you, and thanks for dropping by.  Just a quick post today to update the reader on two developments.  

SH2-157 The Lobster Claw Nebula

First off the bat is my latest image from a run of clear nights early this year.  I've finally got around to processing the data on this, SH2-157 The Lobster Claw nebula.

I've never imaged this target before, but I picked up on it from a new book I bought over the xmas period called The Astrophotography Sky Atlas by Charles Bracken.  I also learned how to add the SH2 catalogue to my install of Cartes du Ciel on the observatory PC which has opened up a whole new series of targets I can easily find and image.

Location wise. this nebula is a near neighbour of the Bubble Nebula in the constellation of Cassiopeia.  Indeed, with an appropriate field of view, it would be possible to image both nebulae at the same time.  It's made up of predominantly HII and OIII emissions, and when imaged through a quadband filter and processed using an HOO palette, it comes up well in red/orange and blue colours.  It is considered a relatively bright nebula, but is well deserved of more than the 3 hours of total exposure time I have given it.

• Approximately 3 hours of 98 second exposures.
• 30 dark frames
• 30 flat frames
• 30 flat dark frames
• Processed in Pixinsight plus BlurXTerminator and Seti Astro tools
• Skywatcher EQ6r-Pro Mount
• Altair 115 EDT Telescope
• Altair 26c CMOS camera
• Altair Quadband filter

Astrophotography Talk   

Secondly, earlier this week I received a call asking if I would do a talk in a local village hall for a society completely unrelated to astronomy to which I have agreed.  The society in question is about local produce growing, so this talk will be to a completely new audience, potentially with no amateur astronomy experience whatsoever.  Out of a selection of dates offered, I suggested a September evening would possibly be best and as well as a talk, have suggested that if the weather is agreeable, that I could take a telescope to have a quick look at some targets after the meeting.

On the subject of the talk, I have been given free-reign.  Bearing in mind this will potentially be for a completely new audience, I think something visual will be in order rather than getting heavily involved in a specific topic, mission or scientific area of study,  Give them something to look at eh!?  I also will only have around 40 - 45 minutes so I think I will look at 3 images of different targets, maybe a galaxy, an emission nebula and a cluster.  I could cover where they could be found in the night sky relative to the nearest common constellation, and then break down some of the facts about the target light how far away it is, it's size, it's composure etc.  

There's plenty of time to refine it, but those are the lines I'm thinking along at the moment.

Once again, thanks for stopping by and reading my update.  The weather here is a bit rough for the next couple of days, but looking at the forecast, we are due to enter another period of relatively calm and clear weather in the second part of the week, so hopefully I will be able to get out under the stars once again.