SH2-246 Dark Nebula in Orion 12000 ly away

I decided to go ahead and send this image in even though it is not as exciting. It is interesting, however, to realize that some of what is out there in space is not well lite. Maybe not as exciting but nevertheless interesting. There are a whole lot of “dark” nebula out there in space. There is actually a catalog of dark nebula called LDN (Lynds’ Catalogue of Dark Nebula).

I was just fooling around and realized there was this large object in the upper left hand corner of Orion. So, I just took pics of it to see what was out there. What was out there was a large dark nebula. I lightened up the color of the nebula so it was easier to see. Dark nebula just aren’t lite up, meaning they are so dense and thick that now light penetrates through them (they aren’t backlit). Also, they have no large star close by that causes light to reflect. So, they are called dark nebula. They are still star forming regions.

Because this object is dark (really dim) I took 15 minute exposures over two nights. Since clouds joined the party I only got 29 usable exposures, but that is still 4.8 hours of exposure. So, the image worked out and I got to find out what was in that corner of Orion.

ASI2600MC Pro g100, AskarV@384f4.8, 29 15min pics (4.8 hours) exposure, +darks/biases/flats
AM5/ASIair+, EAF, Askar OAG with ASI174mini for guiding

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