Shadow of California

Detail of the California Nebula in Ha and SII, with the dark nebula center top.

Full quality processing on Astrobin here.

The California Nebula (NGC 1499) is usually thought as an Ha emission nebula, but it also has a significant SII signal (but OIII is almost absent, at least in the area above). It also has a few interesting dark structures, the most prominent being in the image (top center).

With 2.5° of length, or the angular size of 5 full moons, it is a very large object, often portrayed in wide field images.

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