Un’onda d’urto che attraversa lo spazio interstellare. È quanto si vede in questa fotografia: il raggio di Herschel è una regione di gas incandescente osservata quasi di profilo dal nostro punto di vista. La struttura contiene molti filamenti luminosi intrecciati che le conferiscono un aspetto tridimensionale. Questo bellissimo oggetto si trova vicino alla Pulsar delle Vele, nella costellazione della Vela. A una distanza stimata di 800 anni luce di distanza e di circa 5 anni luce di lunghezza, la sua dimensione è alla portata della maggior parte degli astrofotografi dilettanti. L’onda d’urto si sta muovendo attraverso lo spazio interstellare a oltre 500.000 chilometri all’ora.
«Imagine a shock wave racing through interstellar space. This is what you are looking at. Herschel’s Ray is a sheet of glowing gas that we see almost edge-on from our vantage point. The structure contains many bright intertwined braided filaments giving a three-dimensional look. You can find this beautiful object near the Vela Pulsar in the constellation Vela. At an estimated distance of 800 light years away, and about 5 light years in length, its size is within the grasp of most amateur astrophotographers. The shockwave is moving through interstellar space at over 500,000 kilometres per hour. After the initial explosion, it was travelling in the millions of kilometres per hour range. I guess we all slow down in time.
Traditional broadband imaging of this area reveals some lovely dark voids, a range of colourful stars, and a lovely teal colour not present in many celestial objects. Narrowband filters reveal strong emissions that may not be seen clearly with RGB imaging. My intent was to merge the interesting features from both imaging domains into one, and attempting to retain a colour space similar to that found in traditional RGB imaging.
When I look at the final result, I was pleased with the intermixing of reds and blues at the bottom left of the image. It looks to be glowing and appears to have a three dimensional quality like the main target of the image. The data was pushed fairly hard in an attempt to reveal the background dark voids against a curtain of stellar dust. Hopefully, I didn’t introduce to much noise. Herschel’s Ray is an incredible structure racing across the cosmos.» (T. Robison)
Instruments Used:
10 Inch RCOS fl 9.1
Astro Physics AP-900 Mount
SBIG STL 11000m
FLI Filter Wheel
Astrodon Lum, Red, Green, Blue Filters
Baader Planetarium H-alpha 7nm Narrowband-Filter
Baader Planetarium OIII 8.5nm Narrowband-Filter
Exposure Details:
OIII 87X1800
Ha 58X1800
Lum 52X900
Red 16X450
Green 16X450
Blue 16X450
91.5 Hours
Image Credits: Terry Robison