APOD: IC 4628: The Prawn Nebula (2016 Dec 09)

[APOD Robot]

IC 4628: The Prawn Nebula

Explanation: South of Antares, in the tail of the nebula-rich constellation Scorpius, lies emission nebula IC 4628. Nearby hot, massive stars, millions of years young, irradiate the nebula with invisible ultraviolet light, stripping electrons from atoms. The electrons eventually recombine with the atoms to produce the visible nebular glow, dominated by the red emission of hydrogen. At an estimated distance of 6,000 light-years, [url=https://www.eso.org/public/videos/eso1535a/"the region shown is about 250 light-years across, spanning over three full moons <a href="ap130801.html]on the sky[/url]. The nebula is also cataloged as Gum 56 for Australian astronomer Colin Stanley Gum, but seafood-loving astronomers might know this cosmic cloud as the Prawn Nebula. The tantalizing color image is a new astronomical composition using data from the European Southern Observatory's wide field OmegCAM and amateur images made under dark skies on the Canary Island of Tenerife.

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[Ann]

This is a lovely RGB image!

Ann

[Skyfire]

So is there where the aliens in District 9 came from?

[neufer]

So is there where the aliens in District 9 came from?

[b][color=#0000FF]Prawns are a popular traditional Christmas seafood in Australia.[/color][/b]

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"Shrimp on the barbie" is an often-quoted phrase that originated in a series of television advertisements by the Australian Tourism Commission starring Paul Hogan from 1984 through to 1990. "Barbie" is Australian slang for barbecue. However, Australians invariably use the word prawn rather than shrimp. Because the commercial was commissioned for broadcast in the United States, the change was made to limit audience confusion. >>

[danhammang]

I'm amazed at the work that must have went into this. The explanation says, "...a new astronomical composition using data from the European Southern Observatory's wide field OmegaCAM and amateur images...". I want to infer that R. Colombari who is mentioned in the Image Credit took the images in Tenerife. And then I guess the data from the European Southern Observatory is available to the public. If I am right so far then Mr./Sr. Colombari composed the image we see using both his photo and that data. If anyone knows how the process works I would be interested to hear about it.

[rcolombari]

If I am right so far then Mr./Sr. Colombari composed the image we see using both his photo and that data. If anyone knows how the process works I would be interested to hear about it.

Yes, exactly.
Eric and I recorded a wide field image of this area (~1.604arcsec/px) with a 350mm F3.3 astrograph + FLI ProLine 16803 few months ago.
Our observatory was (now we dismissed it) placed in Teide, Tenerife.

The above mentioned data have been used as RGB base (= color) for the luminance information I composed from observations done by the OmegaCAM/VLT whose data are public, as you said. You can find them here: http://archive.eso.org/eso/eso_archive_main.html .

The processing of the PRO ESO data has been done using Pixinsight (calibration), Registar (registering) and PSCS5 (cosmetics).
I am also using few pieces of dedicated software I wrote to help ESO data reduction.

It is useful to give a look to some parts of this document in order to have some basic concepts of the OmegaCAM/VLT: https://www.eso.org/sci/facilities/para ... -2_7_1.pdf .

Bests.
RC

[Boomer12k]

Pretty Prawn, in the sky
How I wish, you were in my POT!!! YUMMY!!!!!!!!!!!!

nice shot....
:---[===] *

[danhammang]

This is very intriguing. What a world that we live in that allows anyone to use the data from this great observatory. And also how humbling it is to think of the generosity of people to offer the results of their work for public viewing. A quick look at both the observatory search engine and the manual leads me to the conclusion that you must have pretty good knowledge of both astronomy and photography to be able to compose this kind of image. I noticed that the very last table listed in the manual would seem to call for a knowledge of quantum physics. The trip to Tenerife would seem to be but one small aspect of the preparation required. What a remarkable result. Thank you again for your palpable love of our skies and your generosity in sharing this with all of us.

DanH

[rcolombari]

Thanks so much Dan for the kind words.
I would say that it is not strictly required to have deep knowledges of physics to make such compositions.
The OmegaCAM manual, for instance, is just useful for understanding the sensor layout (which are the chips/filters/orientation, where are the gaps, etc...).

For sure, it requires a good amount of time and pacience for finding a good approach/method for putting together all this heterogeneous data.

Bests.
Roberto