SVX130T - Seahorse Nebula

Neil Martin caught this mystifying image of the Seahorse Nebula (LDN 1082) with his SVX130T. This object is a dark nebula, which is essentially a thick molecular cloud of dust that obscures all of the light from the stars behind it. It is located in the constellation Cepheus and is approximately 1,200 light-years away from Earth. Dark nebulae don’t emit light and are only visible as a result of the starlight behind them. Because of this, dark nebulae are best imaged from sites with very dark skies and little light pollution.

According to Neil: “This is an image of the “Seahorse Nebula” with designations LDN1082 and Barnard 150. I took this photograph at the Golden State Star Party which was held in a dark sky site about 70 miles north of Susanville.”

Other Designations: Seahorse Nebula, LDN 1082, Barnard 150

Details:

Telescope: Stellarvue SVX130T

Camera: ZWO ASI2600MC Camera

Mount: Skywatcher EQ6R Mount

219 x 180s images (11 hours total integration time over 2 nights), no filters.

References:

Wikipedia contributors. (2023, December 2). Seahorse Nebula. Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seahorse_Nebula

APOD: 2018 October 25 - Barnard 150: Seahorse in Cepheus. (n.d.). https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap181025.html