Dec. 10-16, 2022 winner
Abdur Anwar’s WR 134 received high praise from judges, winning Photo of the Week for the period of Dec. 10-16, 2022.
“WR 134 is a variable Wolf-Rayet star located around 6,000 light years away from Earth in the constellation of Cygnus,” wrote Anwar in his submission. “The faint blue and red nebula surrounds the star and forms a very faint bubble due to the intense radiation and fast wind from the star.”
He said the star creating this nebula is about five times the diameter of the Sun — and much hotter at 63,000K. “That makes it about 400,000 times brighter than the Sun,” he wrote.
Anwar spent several clear nights between October 6, 2022 and November 5, 2022 on this object, concluding his time with 33.5 hours of data. “Although I only managed to image three serious targets this summer and fall, I am glad this was one of them.”
Anwar used NINA for collecting the data, while the processing was done in PixInsight. Judges said he managed to do some very nice blending of the Ha and Oiii.
“It [WR 134] is a difficult target to bring out the detail in the OIII bubble created by the central star. Anwar has done a great job capturing fine details in this shell and balanced the OIII signal very well with the background Ha.”
Anwar’s equipment includes a Celestron C11 EdgeHD telescope with Hyperstar V3, an Asi1600mm Pro camera with ZWO EFW (filter wheel), an EQ6R Pro mount, and Astronomik LRGBHaO3 31mm 6nm MaxFR filters guided with a 60mm 240mm fl guide scope.
The image was taken on November 5, 2022, in Cochrane, Alberta.
Dec. 17-23, 2022 winner
Oscar Echeverri’s NGC 1333, The Embryo Nebula, won Photo of the Week for the period of Dec. 17-23, 2022.
In his submission, he said the NGC 1333 is a reflection nebula on the edge of the constellation Perseus. “It is made up of interstellar dust that is reflecting nearby starlight,” he wrote. “Also visible in the top right quadrant of the image is the dark nebula Barnard 205.”
This image was taken using a ZWO ASI2600MM Pro monochromatic camera, using a set of LRGB filters. “Each of the colour filters received 2 hours of exposure, and 7 hours and 36 minutes was spent in the luminance channel,” wrote Echeverri.
The image was taken on December 13, 2022, in White Lake, Ontario.
Honourable Mentions
Mike Karakas’ Lunar/Mars occultation received an honourable mention for the week of Dec. 10-16, 2022. Judges said the luminosity of both subjects “is extremely different and they are nicely balanced in this image,” and “there is decent detail present on the surface of Mars.”
Andrea Girones’ close encounter received an honourable mention for the week of Dec. 17-23, 2022.
“On December 1, Jupiter and the 63 per cent Moon had a close encounter in the sky and they were lovely together on their own,” she wrote. “I was out late into the evening taking planetary images of Mars through high icy clouds. I looked up and I saw this stunning lunar halo. I ran back into the house to grab my camera. A stunning view! Single exposure at f/1.8, 1s, ISO 1600.”
Judges said she managed to have “great timing” and “the perfect condition” to capture the icy halo and the Moon and Mars together.
