NGC2174 Monkey Head Nebula, Sharpless 252, Sh2-252 at the Curdridge Observatory

Curdridge Observatory, Southampton,UK
Object name: NGC2174 Monkey Head Nebula, Sharpless 252, Sh2-252
Apparent RA: 06 09 23.6 Apparent Dec:+20 39 34
Constellation: Orion
29 Dec 2014

NGC 2174 is an extremely bright region in Orion. A long integration of around 6 hours creates a very smooth result showing some interesting contrasts.

NGC 2174 and NGC 2175 are both in this region, about 6400 light years away. Identified in the Sharpless Catalog as Sh2-252. This image was taken on a Skywatcher 200 Newtonian telescope with an Atik 490 CCD Camera through an Astrodon 3nm Hydrogen Alpha, Ha filter. This actually turned out to be a challenge to process because the nebula is so bright it is difficult to control the black point.

View full sized image of NGC2174 Monkey Head Nebula, Sharpless 252, Sh2-252

This object is part of the Sharpless Catalogue of HII regions

This image was autoguided using my homemade off axis guider with Lodestar.

Imaged with my homemade telescope mount

Exposure Details :

Astrodon 3nm Ha Coma Corrector 14x1500s on 200 @ F5 f.l. 1000 with Atik 490 camera

Equipment:

Skywatcher 200 Newt (upgraded with OO Hilux secondary)
Sky 90 Refractor
Homemade focus motor
Homemade filterwheel / OAG combo with Lodestar guide camera
Atik 490 CCD camera
Homemade Telescope mount

Curdridge Observatory, Southampton,UK