Astral Imaging at Dogwood Ridge Observatory

Latitude: 37°48'51.0" N"
Longitude:78°23'41.0"W
Scottsville, Virginia 24590

(click on thumbnails to go to that image's page)

Quoted from http://www.noao.edu/outreach/aop/observers/ic405.html

Discovered by William Herschel in 1784.

IC 405 is the red/blue nebula to the left of center. It is being illuminated by the energetic star AE Aurigae (embedded in the nebula). However AE Aurigae's story is inextricably linked to another star called Mu Columbae. Around 2.7 million years ago these two stars were formed and had a close encounter with one another in the Great Orion Nebula. The encounter was so close (another star was certainly involved) that each of them was ejected from the Orion complex never to return again. Currently these stars are 66 degrees away from one another in the sky. Astronomer's discovered these two runaway stars by measuring their appearent (fast) motion and noting that if you work backwards in time- the origin is in the same place at the same time! But AE Auriga is certainly the more glamorous of the two stars since it just happens to be moving through a region of gas that makes it look like a "Flaming Star."

This image consists of 13 Red, 14 Green, and 14 Blue images all taken at -30°C at bin 2x2 for 10 minutes each. The luminance images are 15 minutes each binned 1x1 and at -30° with a total of 25 used. All data used totals just over 13 hours. All data was acquired using MaxImDl/CCD version 5.24 using ACP7.  Pix Insight version 1.8 was used for processing. Dithered guiding was on.