The Flaming Star in the constellation Auriga - NGC 405

 

NGC 405 The Flaming Star Reflection Nebula in the Constellation Auriga.
Seestar S30. Processed in RGB -SHO palette. Image Credit: Pip Stakkert.

" The one thing we have in depth at the Jodrell Plank Observatory is data! Loads of the stuff held; on drives, memory sticks and discs from times gone by! So when the nights become short in summer or when the weather takes a turn for the worse, our team at the JPO resort to the existing data for 'shots and giggles'.

This afternoon our specialist imaging engineer, Pip Stakkert, used a variety of software to process data captured with our Seestar S30. 

NGC 405, the Flame Nebula, in the constellation Auriga, is an interesting nebula in that it exhibits both emission and reflection nebulosity. This however, makes processing tricky. Pip decided to use the SHO (Sulphur, Hydrogen and Oxygen) colour palette and this very much enabled the blue emission nebula to be 'showcased' against the very bright Hydrogen Alpha nebulosity, which in standard RGB format overwhelms it". - Joel Cairo CEO of the Jodrell Plank Observatory.

NGC 405 The Flaming Star Nebula

"The Flaming Star Nebula, designated IC 405, is a complex emission and reflection nebula located approximately 1,500 light-years from Earth in the constellation Auriga. It is one of the most striking examples of a nebular region in which both ionized gas and interstellar dust contribute significantly to the observed appearance.

At the heart of the nebula lies the hot, blue O-type star AE Aurigae, whose intense ultraviolet radiation interacts with the surrounding interstellar medium. The red portions of IC 405 are produced by emission nebula processes: ultraviolet photons from AE Aurigae ionize hydrogen atoms within the gas cloud, and when the electrons recombine with the hydrogen nuclei, they emit characteristic red hydrogen-alpha radiation. Interwoven with these glowing regions are blue filaments and wisps formed by reflection nebula processes, where microscopic dust grains scatter and reflect the blue light of the star. This combination of red emission and blue reflection gives the nebula its distinctive colour contrast.

The nebula's dramatic “flaming” appearance arises from complex filamentary structures of gas and dust that seem to stream away from AE Aurigae in long-exposure images. Current evidence suggests that AE Aurigae is a runaway star, moving at high velocity through the interstellar medium after being ejected from the region of the Orion Nebula several million years ago. As the star travels through the cloud, its radiation and stellar wind compress, heat, and illuminate the surrounding material, helping to shape the nebula's intricate morphology.

Infrared and ultraviolet observations have revealed that IC 405 contains not only ionized hydrogen but also molecular hydrogen, warm dust, and complex carbon-bearing molecules. The interaction between AE Aurigae and the nebular material produces shock fronts and regions of enhanced heating, making IC 405 an important laboratory for studying the physics of star–cloud interactions, dust scattering, molecular excitation, and the evolution of the interstellar medium".

Scientifically, the Flaming Star Nebula is therefore not merely a visually beautiful object; it is a dynamic astrophysical environment in which radiation, gas dynamics, dust physics, and stellar motion combine to create a remarkable example of an emission–reflection nebular complex". - Professor G.P.T Chat visiting astrophysicist at the Jodrell Plank Observatory.

The same image of NGC405 but rendered in modified RGB palette.

IC 410

 

IC410 hydrogen gas emission nebula with dust clouds in the constellation Auriga. 
Seestar S30  image credit Kurt Thrust.

" The constellation Auriga, as day becomes night in spring, is low in our western sky. We captured an hour of 30 second sub exposures, from which the above image was constructed, before the constellation dropped below our horizon. The little Seestar S30 does well on bright targets that have a large 'footprint' on the night sky. 

The nebula is a region of ionised hydrogen gas spanning over 100 light years across that's modelled by streams of charged particles in stellar winds coming from the open star cluster NGC 1893. IC 410 is some 12,000 light years distant from Earth". - Kurt Thrust current Director of the Jodrell Plank Observatory.

Winter Highlights with a fast 50mm lens

 

The Constellation Auriga the charioteer widefield.

                       

The Constellation Gemini the twins widefield.

                          

Part of the Constellation Gemini the twins featuring
the bright stars Castor and Pollux

The Constellation Orion the hunter.

Images credit: Pip Stakkert. Two Canon DSLRs were used one astro-modded and with an integral clip in Altair Astro Triband filter. Canon F1.4 and f=50mm fixed lens. All mounted on a Star Adventurer EQ mount. Stack of 2 minute exposures each image about 1 hour in total. Processed primarily using Affinity Photo2

"The winter sky is full of interesting astronomical features and awash with glowing red hydrogen gas and clouds of dark cold dust. The weather finally improved in Lowestoft and we enjoyed the benefit of two consecutive moonlight free and cloud free nights on the 9-10th and 10-11th of January 2024.

The above images were taken with two Canon DSLR cameras, a fast F1.4 f=50mm lens and an Altair Astro Triband filter. The cameras were mounted on a Star Adventurer equatorial mount which enabled exposures of 2 minutes in length which ensured stars were captured as points of light without any apparent trailing due to the Earth's rotation. The Earth spins about its north south axis 15 degrees every hour, which when you think about it is quite extraordinary!

 The eagle eyed of our readers will note the Flaming Star Nebula in the image of Auriga and a number of nebulae  in Orion including; Barnards Loop, the Great Orion Molecular Cloud, The Flame Nebula, the Running Man Nebula, the Horsehead Nebula and the Witch Head Nebula.

The Jodrell Plank Observatory is slowly recovering from the electrical outage caused by storm damage in the latter part of 2023. The LVST (the Lowestoft Very Small software defined radio telescope is still out of action awaiting reprogramming by Jolene McSquint Fleming, the Observatory instrumentation engineer. Sadly and just like the NASA Pioneer space craft, the the software used to originally programme the LVST is now antique and few but the very old are fluent in the language used. Jolene has messaged our sponsor George Roberts who is sufficiently ancient to be of some limited assistance". - Kurt Thrust current Director of the Jodrell Plank Observatory.

StarFixer AI software

M31,M32 and M110

Antares and M4

Constellation Auriga widefield

Globular star cluster M15 widefield

 "All the above images were reprocessed using StarFixer artificial intelligence based software as a part of the data reduction process.. Thanks Filippo for letting us trial your excellent software".  - Joel Cairo CEO of the Jodrell Plank Observatory.

https://www.starfixer.org/

Auriga widefield

 

Auriga in the winter Milky Way.  Canon 600d DSLR at f=18mm on Star Adventurer EQ mount.

"The weather continues both wet and windy at the Jodrell Plank Observatory. Worse still the Jet Stream has now decided to sit overhead. If this continues, I will have to ask the staff to take unpaid leave whilst our resident engineer Jolene McSquint-Fleming carries out essential maintenance on our extensive astronomical equipment. 

Our imaging engineer, Pip Stakkert, has spent an hour or two reprocessing old data obtained during the winter. The area of sky in and around Auriga is full of stars and nebulosity".  -  Joel Cairo CEO of the Jodrell Plank Observatory.

Don't tell the kids

 

The Comet C/2022 E3 ZTF passing through the 'Kids' triangular asterism in the constellation Auriga the Charioteer.  A cropped stack of 35x1 minute light frames taken at f=18mm and ISO 1600 taken with a Star Adventurer EQ mounted un-modded Canon 600d DSLR. Credit: Kurt Thrust.

" In between the clouds and the full Moon rising above the rooves to our east,

Capella

 

Alpha Aurigae-Capella -stack of 60 second exposures at ISO 1600 - Canon 600d DSLR and EOS 18-55 lens at f=18mm all on a Star Adventurer equatorial mount.

"During the winter months, the constellation Auriga rides high in the Northern Hemisphere sky. It's brightest star Capella is in fact a gravitationally bound star system comprising four stars in binary pairs. Two are bright yellow stars each with a mass 2.5 times that of the sun. Two small red dwarf stars make up the other binary pair. Capella is a relatively nearby star system only 43 light years distant from our planet". Kurt Thrust current Director of the Jodrell Plank Observatory.

Messier 37- Open star cluster in the Constellation Auriga

Messier 37 - Combined image - stack of 10 x 30sec lights with the Altair 66mm Doublet wide-field scope  from the Jodrell Plank Observatory (Credit: Archie Mendes) and  1x 180sec light with the PIRATE robotic telescope (Credit: telescope.org - Open University) - combined using Registar Software -(Credit: Pip Stakkert)

"Open star clusters are collections of up to a few thousand stars loosely bound by mutual gravitational attraction. The stars in an open cluster form from the same giant molecular cloud of gas and dust. More than 1100 open clusters have been found in the Milky Way. Open clusters are  found  only in spiral and irregular galaxies where active star formation is occurring. They generally survive for a few hundred million years before the stars disperse as the result of galactic migration and disturbance in close encounters with other clusters. Massive clusters may stay together longer surviving for a few billion years.
Messier 37 is the richest open star cluster in the constellation Auriga and is approximately 4500 light years distant. So the light we collected the other night from M37 set off from the cluster when on Earth the Pyramids were being constructed. The cluster has an estimated combined mass of 1500 suns and angular diameter of 24 arc minutes which corresponds to a dimension of 20 to 25 light years. Messier 37 is somewhere between 350 and 550 million years old - in cosmic terms quite young - younger than the Hyades but older than the Pleiades". - Kurt Thrust - acting CEO and current Director of the Jodrell Plank Observatory.