NGC2237 ‘Rosette Nebula’

By Anton Winter

The ‘Rosette Nebula’ is a large H II cloud of partially ionised gas, with its atoms excited by the blue stars that were recently formed near its centre. This nebula is roughly 5000 light years from Earth and 130 light years in diameter.

I shot this image from my light polluted Sydney suburban backyard in the early hours of 17th January 2015, with the sub-exposures capturing this nebula totalling 2 hours.

Exposures:

  • 12 x 5 minutes
  • 6 x 10 minutes

Equipment:

  • Imaging Scope: Orion ED80T Carbon Fibre Telescope
  • Image Capture: Canon 550D (IR Modified)
  • HEQ5 Pro GOTO Mount
  • Guiding: Orion 80mm Guide scope
  • Guiding: Orion Starshoot Autoguider
  • Dewbuster Controller

Software:

  • Captured with Nebulosity 3
  • Integrated with PixInsight

This time I did some automation on the Dark and Bias frames and captured a suitable amount while I was packing up my gear for the night. This is also the first time I have taken and used all the proper Lights, Darks, Flats and Bias frames in the image integration process, and the use of these made significant impact to my integration workflow.