15/01/2023
A shockwave expanding through space at 600 miles per second
At last, this is my 2 panel mosaic of the full Spaghetti Nebula. This target has a special place in my heart not just because of its subtle beauty, but also because I felt the joy of discovery having seen it in one of my wide field shots when I was first starting out with astrophotography 3 years ago. I spent nights imaging it without knowing what it was. Putting aside the charts of what is “known”, there is something about the process of self-guided discovery of the night sky that gives me so much wonder and joy.
This target is also very technically challenging, as it is both very large (more than 6 full moons in width, from our vantage point!) and very faint after having dispersed through many lightyears of space since the star at its core went supernova 40,000 years ago.
So I’ve come back to this target again now with my improved skills and tools. This image is presented in an HOO color palette and is comprised of more than 90 hours of exposure time to tease out the subtle details of the ionized hydrogen and oxygen in the expanding shockwave.
I hope you like it and have a great day!