With her crisp, clear image of the Crescent Nebula and surrounding Sadr Region dust, Kimberly Sibbald won the Photo of the Week for September 25, 2020.
Shooting in August from Grasslands National Park, Saskatchewan, Sibbald used a ZWO ASI 1600mm Pro camera and Orion ED80 APO refractor (480mm) to capture NGC 6888.
“The Crescent Nebula is an emission nebula in the constellation Cygnus, about 5,000 light-years away from Earth,” Sibbald wrote. “It is a rather faint object located about two degrees southwest of Sadr. The dust of the Sadr region is highlighted above the Crescent Nebula.”
She said she captured the image over three nights, August 19 to 21, 2020. This is a narrowband composition consisting of 17 600-second exposures with a Ha filter, seven 600-second exposures with a Oiii filter and nine 600-second exposures with a Sii filter, for a total integration time of five hours and 30 minutes.
“It’s an unusual narrowband colour interpretation,” noted one of judges, adding that the image is “striking in the amount of dust and background detail.”
Our honourable mention of the week goes to Ryan Fraser for his hard-fought capture of the Soul Nebula.
Capturing his data from London, Ontario, Fraser said he got three hours of data using a Ha filter, 11.25 hours using a Oiii filter, and 8.67 hours with a Sii filter.
“Five minutes short of 23 hours in SHO,” he wrote. “Been trying this target for years, never managed to get it in SHO. It’s not ideal for me, as it sits in the light pollution over the City of London, but it’s easier in narrowband. Taken over many nights, while battling, rain, high thin clouds and smoke and the occasional gear failure during over August and September.”
Fraser said he used an ZWO ASI 1600mm Pro with an Explore Scientific 80mm FCD 100 (384mm) to capture the image.
“The 22-plus hours of exposure allowed him to bring out a great amount of detail and it is well processed,” said one of the judges.
Prizes for the 2020-21 SkyNews Photo of the Week contest are sponsored by Sky-Watcher, Celestron, iOptron and The Royal Astronomical Society of Canada. Click here for more details on the prize packages that will be awarded to the best photos this year.
