| Date: Feb. 16-17-18, 2025 - Location: Dark Sky Observatory, Fort Davis, Texas Telescope: Officina Stellare F3 RH200-AT - Camera: QSI-640 Exposure: SII, Ha, OIII = 16x10 min. each - Red, Green, Blue = 20x3 min. each Click on the image to view at higher resolution. |
| IC 443, commonly known as the Jellyfish Nebula, is located in the constellation Gemini at an approximate distance of 5,000 light-years[1,2]. The nebula is classified as a shell-type supernova remnant[1] created by the explosion of a massive star[1] about 3,000 to 30,000 years ago[3]. The supernova created a neutron star (CXOU J061705.3+222127)[2,3]. This star is moving away from the Jellyfish at approximately 800,000 km/h[3]. It is currently located at the southern edge of the Jellyfish[2]. The nebula is expanding and currently it is about 70 light-years in diameter[1] and extends over an area of sky almost twice the size of the full Moon. The bright star to the right of the nebula is Eta Geminorum[4]. It is a naked-eye foreground star approximately 385 light-years from Earth[4] and is not associated with the Jellyfish Nebula. The image above was assembled using data obtained from three narrowband filters (SII,Ha,OIII) and three wideband (R,G,B) filters. Ha was mapped to the red channel and OIII was mapped to the green and blue channels. SII data was blended into a luminance channel to increase definition and detail in the image. RGB filtered data was blended into the HOO data to increase color fidelity. The stars were overlaid with data obtained from the RGB filtered image. This method of assembly produces a "near true color" image. The image is oriented with north up and east to the left. A modified Hubble Palette version of the image may be viewed here. 1Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IC_443 |
