Some deep-sky objects stay on my wish list for years. NGC 6188 was one of them.
The resemblance is so striking that I sometimes wonder whether the Universe occasionally chooses forms capable of conveying a glimpse of its own gargantuan nature. Here, stellar winds and radiation have sculpted enormous clouds of hydrogen, oxygen, sulfur and dust into what appear to be two dragons locked in an eternal fight.
Just below them lies NGC 6164/6165, the so-called Cosmic Egg, a shell of gas expelled by a massive star nearing the end of its life. Together, the Dragons and the Egg tell the story of stellar evolution—from stellar nurseries to the recycling of material back into the interstellar medium.
This image is a personalized SHO composition built from dual narrowband data acquired with two different filters: 42 × 480 s through an Optolong L-Ultimate (Hα + OIII) and 23 × 480 s through an Askar ColourMagic D2 (SII + OIII).
Capturing this target was also an exercise in persistence. All data were acquired from my Bortle 9 backyard in Vitória, Brazil, with most of the Hα integration obtained only 30–35° from a Full Moon, under variable transparency. Careful frame weighting, background modeling and channel combination made it possible to reveal these structures despite the challenging conditions.
Equipment
Askar FMA135
Sky-Watcher AZ-GTi
ToupTek ATR2600C (IMX571) cooled to −10 °C
Optolong L-Ultimate + Askar ColourMagic D2
ToupTek OAG + ASI220MM Mini
N.I.N.A., PHD2, PixInsight and Lightroom Mobile
Capture made in June 23th, 28th and 29th
Vitória – ES, Brazil
Bortle 9 skyes