IC 349 Barnard's Merope Nebula

[Menno555]

IC 349 Barnard's Merope Nebula

A small nebula (on the direct left of the star), 3500 AUs (0.06 light years) from the star Merope in the Pleiades cluster. It's traveling through the group at a relative speed of 11 km/sec and is close enough to Merope to see the effects caused by either the star's radiation pressure, a stellar wind, or both.
This was a new challenge, to get something visible so close to a relative bright star (Merope is around magnitude +4). Image is a crop and at 200% enlargement.

The 3000px version can be found here: https://i.ibb.co/r0pF3H8/IC-349.jpg

Bortle 6/7
Meade LX200 8" f/10 ACF OTA
Ioptron CEM25EC mount
Baader IR/UV Cut filter
Zwo ASI071MC Pro camera

Captured with SharpCap Pro @ -10 Celsius / White balance R50 B50
170 x 15 sec / Gain 90 / Offset 4
No darks, 50x flats en 50x darkflats

Stacked with DeepSkyStacker, used 80% of the best captures

Processed with SiriL en Photoshop
Siril: Histogram Transformation
Photoshop: Crop, Levels, Curves, Camera Raw Filter (blacks, clarity, sharpening, color, noise reduction) and some other steps. 200% enlargement to 3000px of crop.

IC 349sm.jpg (389.73 KiB) Viewed 603 times

[Cybermystic]

VERY nice work - that's a tough one to get!!
Greg

[timh]

Many thanks for pointing out this object of interest Menno. I didn't even realize the 'Barnard's' Merope nebula existed. That is an excellent spot. Something hidden in the light

Now going to see if I can see a hint of it any of my existing M45 exposures ...perhaps the shorter exposures at very low stretch will be the best bet?

P.S. Yes seeing it now ..by taking the stretch right down it is quite clear to see

Incidentally - just in case you haven't also tried it yet the relativistic jet coming from the black hole in M87 is rather similar. Stretch the data up far enough to see the M87 halo properly and the jet is lost in all the light. But take the stretch right down and the jet is very clear to see. Maybe the best approach with these type of objects would be a high dynamic range composition so you can both see the Barnard nebula and, at the same time, all the surrounding nebulosity?

Tim

[Menno555]

Thanks Greg and Tim!

Indeed it's a small hidden gem. Did find it actually myself by experimenting on M45 with my long focal length. At first I though it was some kind of weird reflection caused by the star but did found it to be a real object
I did focus now really on it and that's why I used the Gain = 90. I think that with Gain = 0, maybe Offset/Brightness = 10 and bit longer exposure, the overall image can show more.

And yes, M87 is on my list. Last year the weather did not allow to capture. I think I can just capture it, it is just above the roof in 2 months time.

Menno