Waid Observatory


Object: Sh2-280

Date: Jan. 30 & 31 - Feb. 4, 2020   -  ; Location: Davis Mountains west of Ft Davis, TX
Telescope: 10 in. RC  Mount: Paramont MX   Camera: Apogee-8300F
Exposure: SII = 240 min. - Ha and OIII = 360 min. each - (20 min. sub-exposures. bin 1X1)

Click on the image below to view at higher resolution.


 
Sh2-280

 

Sh2-2801,2

Sh2-280, as listed in the Sharpless Catalog of HII regions, is located in the constellation Monoceros approximately 5,500 light years from the Earth.  It is a very near, about 2 degrees south, of the more famous Rosette Nebula.  Perhaps this is the reason it seems to be overlooked by many amateur astronomers.  It is, in my opinion, a remarkable celestial object with many interesting features.  According to research, the nebula is illuminated and ionized by the bright, type O7, star, HD 46573, located near the center of Sh2-280.  A feature I find interesting is the blue shock front located to the right of the star.  This structure stands out in the OIII filtered image.  I, however, have not found any literature, or research, describing this feature.

The image above was assembled using the standard Hubble Palette with SII mapped to red, Ha mapped to green and, OIII mapped to blue.  The stars were overlaid with data from a bi-color (Ha,OIII,OIII) filtered image.

A bi-color (near true color) version of the image may be viewed here.

1http://galaxymap.org/cat/view/sharpless/280
2https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sh2-280

 
Copyright Donald P. Waid