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Date: July 16-17-18, 2024 - Location: Dark Sky Observatory - Fort Davis, TX Telescope: 16 in. RC Mount: Paramount MEII Camera: FLI 16803M Exposure: Ha, OIII = 18x10m each; Red, Green = 30x2 min. each - Blue = 29x2 min.
Click on the image below to view at higher resolution.
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Sh2-114, as listed in the Sharpless catalog, is a faint, little studied[1,2], nebula located in the constellation Cygnus the Swan[1]. It has a filamentous structure that resembles a supernova remnant[1] such as NGC 6979 (Pickering's Triangle) found in the more famous Veil Nebula. This, however, does not seem to be the case for Sh2-114 as no supernovae, or their remnants, have been detected in the area[1]. Sh2-114's complex and wispy structure is probably the result stellar winds emitted by very hot and massive stars that are interacting with interstellar magnetic fields[2]. The distance to the nebula does not seem to be firmly established, however; I found one reference noting a distance of between 3,520 and 4,175 light years the Earth[3]. Many people see objects and animals in the clouds of our earthly skies. The same is true for the clouds in the celestial sky. Some see, in this celestial vista, a dragon with wings soaring through the heavens and have named Sh2-114 the Flying Dragon Nebula. The image above is known as a Bi-Color (Near True Color) image and was acquired using narrowband filters. It was assembled by mapping Ha to Red and OIII to Blue and Green. The stars were overlaid with color data from a standard Red, Green, and Blue filtered image. A SHO (Hubble Palette) version of Sh2-114 may be viewed here.
Member of the Dark Sky Observatory Collaborative
References
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