Spooky
shapes seem to haunt this starry expanse, drifting through the night in
the royal constellation Cepheus. Of course, the shapes are cosmic dust
clouds faintly visible in dimly reflected starlight. Far from your own
neighborhood on planet Earth, they lurk at the edge of the Cepheus Flare
molecular cloud complex some 1,200 light-years away. Over 2 light-years
across the ghostly nebula known as vdB 141 or Sh2-136 is near the
center of the field. The core of the dark cloud on the right is
collapsing and is likely a binary star system in the early stages of
formation.
(Text from apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap101030.html)
This
picture was photographed on July 6-8, 2011 in the Crimea during the
festival of amateur astronomy, "Southern Nights 2011" (height of 600 m
above. sea level)
Equipment: reflector S&D 254 mm. f/4.7 (New
carbon tube!), Mount WhiteSwan-180, camera QSI-583wsg, Tevevue Paracorr.
Off-axis guidecamera Orion SSAG.
RGB filter set Baader Planetarium.
L: 20x600 sec., RGB: 10x600 sec. each filter, all unbinned.
North up.
Processed Pixinsight and Photoshop CS5.
Link to full sise http://olegbr.astroclub.kiev.ua/files/astrofoto/vdb141/vdb-141_sh2-136_full_v3.jpg