Sh2-129 & vdB 140

This is a not-often imaged section of sky, probably due to it's more famous neighbors (IC1396 & vdB 142).

This image taken using the facilities of JMSM Observatory.

Click the image above for larger versions of this image. Read the rest of this blog entry for some more details.

Sh2-129 turned out to be quite a dim region. I tried to record additional narrow band data ([SII] and [OIII]) but did not record anything in a single 30 minute exposure through either filter. So instead I settled on imaging just Ha data the first night (back in July).

I tried to search for other images of this on the internet, but not many turned up. Of the few that did, some with a similar field of view showed the nice reflection nebula, vdB 140 nearby. Fortunately my framing included this region. When I was finally able to grab some green and blue photons, I made sure to get as much blue data as I could to highlight this little blue gem.

There turns out to be a lot of dust in this area. Where the brightest Ha emission nebula ends on the left side of the frame, there is some blue/green dust highlighted over the red/Ha background. In a standard RGB image, I believe that these blue/green regions would show up as the typical brown of slightly illuminated dust. Since the red channel of my image contains only data from Ha emission regions, the red component of this dust was not recorded, leaving these portions the blue/green color they are.

All-in-all I think this is a very interesting region with a combination of emission and reflection nebula with a neat spattering of slightly illuminated dust. Some other exposure strategies could really highlight this area differently.

On a side note, it was funny to learn that Dean Salman, who also uses the facilities of JMSM Observatory, also imaged this target recently. He was able to produce a two-frame mosaic of the region, highlighting a nice dark nebula next door to Sh2-129. His image is here.