Located northeast (left) of Pleiades, south of California Nebula and north (above) of Aldebaran, spanning more than 30o of the night sky is the Taurus Molecular Cloud (TMC), a rich area of dark nebulae punctuated by bright areas of new star formation. Moreover, the TMC is thought to be the nearest star forming region to Earth.
All-in-all, the very large TMC provides many promising imaging opportunities. This image captures numerous, complex dark nebulae across the field-of-view, including Barnard 10 & 214, LDN 1495 & VdB 27, together with bright reflection nebulae LBN 782 & 785 and the odd galaxy – if you look carefully.
IMAGING DETAILS | |
Object | Barnard 10, VdB 27, LBN 782 & 785 |
Constellation | Taurus |
Distance | 450 light-years |
Scope | William Optics GT81 + Focal Reducer FL 382mm f4.72 |
Mount | SW AZ-EQ6 GT + EQASCOM computer control & Cartes du Ciel |
Guiding | William Optics 50mm guide scope |
+ Starlight Xpress Lodestar X2 camera & PHD2 guiding | |
Camera | ZWO ASI294MM CMOS sensor |
FOV 2.87o x 1.96o Resolution 2.50”/pix Max. image size 4,144 x 2,822 pix | |
EFW | ZWOx8 EFW & LRGB 31mm Chroma filters |
Capture & Processing | Astro Photography Tool (APT), Deep Sky Stacker & PixInsight v1.8.9-2 |
Image Location & Orientation | Centre = RA 04:20:19.60 DEC +27:22:.07.66 Right = North |
Exposures | L x50, R x30, G x31, B x27 x300 sec Total Integration Time: 11hr 30 min |
@ Gain 120 & Offset 30 @ -15oC | |
Calibration | 5 x 300 sec Darks 10 x NB Flats & Dark Flats @ ADU 32,000 |
Location & Darkness | Fairvale Observatory – Redhill – Surrey – UK Typically Bortle 5 / 6 |
Date & Time | 6th 7th 14th November 2023 + 15th January 2024 @ +21.00h |
Weather | Approx. <=6oC RH >=80% 🌙 <30% Waning |