Barnard 150

Barnard 150 - The Seahorse Nebula

Barnard 150 is a dark molecular cloud of dust in constellation Cepheus, peculiarly shaped like a seahorse and located at about 1,200 light years from Earth. The nebula itself is visible because it blocks the stars and Milky Way light beyond it and it is composed mainly of cold dense dust particles, coated with frozen gasses like nitrogen and carbon monoxide. This is the kind of environment where stars are born and indeed there are three areas, the darkest ones, called LDN 1082A, B and C, where they are being formed.

Also visible in the corner is a red patch, which is a hydrogen alpha cloud, a small portion of the large nebula of the Flying Bat. Scattered in the photo smaller hydrogen alpha regions are also visible, albeit much fainter.

I had originally planned to use a different telescope and a different framing but having forgotten at home a specific power transformer, I had to adapt… 🙂 And between mount issues, high clouds and a party 2 meters away on one night, some photons managed to be used in this photo.

I seldom photograph dark nebulae as a dark sky is needed to get a decent result and not often I can have access - but is undoubtedly one of my preferred objects types. I need to do narrowband but what I really like is RGB.

Technical details as follows:

Ha 97 x 300’’; Santa Susana(Bortle 4) - 26, 28 Aug 2023

LUM 113 x 180’’’; Santa Susana (Bortle 4) - 22, 23, 24 Aug 2023

RED 130 x 180’’; Santa Susana (Bortle 4) - 21, 25, 29 Aug 2023

GREEN 65 x 180’’; Santa Susana (Bortle 4) - 21, 25, 29 Aug 2023

BLUE 52 x 180’’; Santa Susana (Bortle 4) - 21, 25, 29 Aug 2023

Acquisition: N.I.N.A. | Processing: Pixinsight

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