LDN 1251 - Stellarvue 80 Triplet

Jon Talbot caught this brilliant shot of the Rotten Fish nebula (LDN 1251) in Cepheus with his Stellarvue 80 Triplet. This dark nebula rests approximately 1,000 light-years away from Earth and is a star forming region. Its dusty, dark and elongated shape is thought to be the result of interactions with solar winds from a past supernova. Unlike emission nebulae that emit light, dark nebulae such as this one, absorb it. This cloaking of light is caused by interstellar dust grains in the coldest, densest parts of the molecular cloud.

According to Jon: “The image of the Rotten Fish nebula or LDN 1251, was taken at the Okie Tex Star Party in September. This one was with the SV 80s and ASI 2600 color camera on my AM5 mount. It was (98) 4 min exposures or 6.5hrs of exposure time.

Other Designations: LDN 1251, Rotten Fish Nebula, Angler Fish Nebula

Details:

Telescope: Stellarvue 80 Triplet

Camera: ZWO ASI2600MC Pro

Mount: ZWO AM5

Software:

• Pleiades Astrophoto PixInsight
• ZWO ASIAIR

*For more details and an in-depth look at this image, visit Jon’s AstroBin.

References:

AstroBin. (n.d.). AstroBin. https://app.astrobin.com/u/talbotj?i=7jld3n#gallery

Wikipedia contributors. (2025, October 2). Dark nebula. Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dark_nebula

LDN1251 Rotten Fish Nebula- fragment – Desert Astro. (n.d.). https://desertastro.net/ldn1251_rotten_fish/

LDN-1251 (The Rotten Fish Nebula) -. (2024, October 10). https://www.astrowitheric.com. https://www.astrowitheric.com/nebulae/ldn-1251/