230810 - Sh2-101 "Tulip" nebula
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ASTRO:
type=Emission nebula mag=9.0 const=Cygnus dist=6000 ly size=28 ly IMAGE: location=EB Driveway BrtlCls=4 moon=0.4% (new) exposure=CMOS OSC, 26x300s (2.2h), Gain200 EQUIPMENT: camera=ZWO ASI2600MC-Pro optics=ES102 w1.0x fltnr, F=714mm, f/7.0 filter=Radian Triad Ultra Quad NB mount=Celestron AVX guiding=Orion 60x240mm, ZWO ASi224MC SOFTWARE: acquisition=Stellarium, APT, PHD2, DSS processing=PixInsight, StarNet2, RCAstro, PhotoshopCC, LrC |
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Framing a bright emission H-II region, this telescopic view looks out along the plane of our Milky Way Galaxy toward the nebula rich constellation Cygnus the "Swan". Popularly called the Tulip Nebula, the reddish glowing cloud of interstellar gas and dust is also found in the 1959 catalog by American astronomer Stewart Sharpless as Sh2-101. Nearly 28 light-years across, the complex and beautiful Tulip Nebula blossoms about 6,000 light-years away. Ultraviolet radiation from young energetic stars at the edge of the Cygnus OB3 association of stars (inside the nebula), including class O star HDE 227018, ionizes the atoms of the nebula's gases and powers the emission we see. Also in the field of view is microquasar, Cygnus X-1, one of the strongest X-ray sources in planet Earth's sky.
Only very faintly visible in this image, Cygnus X-1 is a difficult and highly sought after target for amateur astrophotographers. When successfully captured, it is blasted into their images by powerful jets from a nearby black hole, located just to the upper right of Sh2-101. It is detected as a faint arching cloud structure appx 1/3 the size of the nebula. In September of 2022 accomplished astro-imager Peter Kohlmann submitted his image of Sh2-101 to the NASA APOD website, where the arch is clearly visible. To have one's image selected, published and commented on by the NASA APOD Team of professional astronomers is an extreme and distinct honor among amateur astronomical imagers around the world.
The black hole of Cygnus X-1 has a radius of appx 45 km (extremely small by astronomical standards) and a mass of appx 15x that of our Sun. It has a companion star which is profoundly larger in physical size, but only marginally larger in mass, being a spectral class O star, magnitude 9.7 supergiant with a radius of appx 1.4 M km, and mass of 21 solar masses. The period of rotation for this binary pair is 5.8 days with a separation of appx 30 M km; and even though the pair are extremely different in size, their somewhat similar mass makes the centroid of their rotational paths almost centered between them. Working through the math, the two objects are circling one another at a velocity of appx 677 km/h, or nearly 17x faster than the speed of the Perseverance Mars Probe when it traveled from Earth to Mars. For objects of such size and mass to exhibit this much motion is noteworthy.
Only very faintly visible in this image, Cygnus X-1 is a difficult and highly sought after target for amateur astrophotographers. When successfully captured, it is blasted into their images by powerful jets from a nearby black hole, located just to the upper right of Sh2-101. It is detected as a faint arching cloud structure appx 1/3 the size of the nebula. In September of 2022 accomplished astro-imager Peter Kohlmann submitted his image of Sh2-101 to the NASA APOD website, where the arch is clearly visible. To have one's image selected, published and commented on by the NASA APOD Team of professional astronomers is an extreme and distinct honor among amateur astronomical imagers around the world.
The black hole of Cygnus X-1 has a radius of appx 45 km (extremely small by astronomical standards) and a mass of appx 15x that of our Sun. It has a companion star which is profoundly larger in physical size, but only marginally larger in mass, being a spectral class O star, magnitude 9.7 supergiant with a radius of appx 1.4 M km, and mass of 21 solar masses. The period of rotation for this binary pair is 5.8 days with a separation of appx 30 M km; and even though the pair are extremely different in size, their somewhat similar mass makes the centroid of their rotational paths almost centered between them. Working through the math, the two objects are circling one another at a velocity of appx 677 km/h, or nearly 17x faster than the speed of the Perseverance Mars Probe when it traveled from Earth to Mars. For objects of such size and mass to exhibit this much motion is noteworthy.