The Flaming Star Nebula in narrowband today's APOD.
The Flaming Star Nebula (IC 405), the Tadpole Nebula (IC 410)
and the intervening Jumping School of Fish. Photo: Reinhold Wittich.
It is no secret that I personally much prefer RGB (+ Hα) imagery over narrowband photography. So it goes without saying that I like Reinhold Wittich's picture better than Eric Coles and Mel Helm's.
I find the entire "skyscape" with IC 405, IC 410 and the Jumping School of Fish so attractive. Okay, I don't know if the group of five bright stars between IC 405 and IC 410 is really called the Jumping School of Fish, but such a name was suggested to me in Swedish, and since then I've thought of those stars like that.
(You can even see in Reinhold Wittich's photo that one of the stars in the the Jumping School of Fish is bluer than the others. That star is IQ Aurigae, and it is classified as an A0 Si type of star, because of the strong silicon lines in its spectrum. But it is as hot as a B4-type star and very blue. It is one of my favorite stars!)
Back to the APOD. Very fine details in the structure of the nebula can be seen in the APOD. It is easy to see that the molecular cloud was just sitting there until the runaway star AE Aurigae plowed into the cloud at high speed.
- The Pleiades small.png (352.18 KiB) Viewed 4180 times
Seeing the effects of the runaway star AE Auriage barging into a molecular cloud and creating the Flaming Star Nebula reminds me of the Pleiades, seen in a beautiful picturre by Adam Block at right. The Pleiades, too, have collided with a molecular cloud, although at a much more leisurely pace. And while the bright stars of the Pleiades are hot and blue, they are not hot enough to ionize the molecular cloud they are visiting and turn it into a red emission nebula. But a blue reflection nebula is certainly nice enough!
Ann
[float=left][img2]https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/2001/IC405hp_ColesHelm_960.jpg[/img2][c][size=85]The Flaming Star Nebula in narrowband today's APOD.[/size][/c][/float] [float=right][img2]https://images.fineartamerica.com/images/artworkimages/mediumlarge/2/1-ic-405-the-flaming-star-nebula-reinhold-wittich.jpg[/img2][c][size=85]The Flaming Star Nebula (IC 405), the Tadpole Nebula (IC 410)
and the intervening Jumping School of Fish. Photo: Reinhold Wittich.[/size][/c][/float]
It is no secret that I personally much prefer RGB (+ Hα) imagery over narrowband photography. So it goes without saying that I like Reinhold Wittich's picture better than Eric Coles and Mel Helm's.
I find the entire "skyscape" with IC 405, IC 410 and the Jumping School of Fish so attractive. Okay, I don't know if the group of five bright stars between IC 405 and IC 410 is really called the Jumping School of Fish, but such a name was suggested to me in Swedish, and since then I've thought of those stars like that.
(You can even see in Reinhold Wittich's photo that one of the stars in the the Jumping School of Fish is bluer than the others. That star is IQ Aurigae, and it is classified as an A0 Si type of star, because of the strong silicon lines in its spectrum. But it is as hot as a B4-type star and very blue. It is one of my favorite stars!) :D
Back to the APOD. Very fine details in the structure of the nebula can be seen in the APOD. It is easy to see that the molecular cloud was just sitting there until the runaway star AE Aurigae plowed into the cloud at high speed.
[float=right][attachment=0]The Pleiades small.png[/attachment][/float]
Seeing the effects of the runaway star AE Auriage barging into a molecular cloud and creating the Flaming Star Nebula reminds me of the Pleiades, seen in a beautiful picturre by Adam Block at right. The Pleiades, too, have collided with a molecular cloud, although at a much more leisurely pace. And while the bright stars of the Pleiades are hot and blue, they are not hot enough to ionize the molecular cloud they are visiting and turn it into a red emission nebula. But a blue reflection nebula is certainly nice enough! :D
Ann