The Cepheus Cave Nebula (Sh2-155) + Pasquale Mastroianni + L-QEF (L-Quad Enhance Filter)
The Cepheus Cave Nebula (Sh2-155)
Credits: Pasquale Mastroianni
Filters: Optolong L-QEF (L-Quad Enhance Filter)
COSMIC DEPTHS: The Cepheus Cave Nebula (Sh2-155)
Another project lasting several weeks has come to an end – one of those that really puts you through your paces during the processing stage, but which, when you reach the end, makes you say: yes, it was well worth it!
Imagine a rift in the fabric of the cosmos, carved out by the light of newborn stars battling against the darkness. The Cave Nebula is precisely that: a gigantic cathedral of dust and gas hidden in the constellation Cepheus, whose photons have travelled for over 2,400 years before striking my camera’s sensor and giving us this image.
What fascinates me most about this subject is its incredible three-dimensional architecture. Just above the entrance to the ‘cave’ rises a dense cloud of interstellar dust which, by capturing the light from nearby stars, creates a distinctive plume of cosmic mist: a detail I spent a long time working on during the data processing stage to clearly separate it from the sky background and bring out all its nuances.
To give you an idea of the size of this ‘tiny’ portion of sky captured in the photograph, you should know that this cosmic ‘cave’ actually spans around 10 light-years (over 90,000 billion kilometres). To grasp the staggering scale of this object, just to span the width of the cavern we would need to line up, side by side, a staggering 68 million Suns! Or roughly 10,000 Solar Systems stretching all the way to Neptune’s orbit.
An interesting fact about perspective: look at that bright star almost in the centre of the image (HD 217035). It is not actually inside the nebula, but is a giant star situated in the foreground, ‘just’ 800 light-years away from us. It appears to be positioned there purely due to a cosmic play of perspective in relation to the Cave, which lies a full 1,600 light-years further back, creating a stunning natural sense of depth.
Target: The Cave Nebula (Sh2-155 / Sharpless 155)
Location: Domus Astrae Observatory, Liberi (CE), Italy
Integrazione totale : 11.3 ore (Sub-frames: 136 x 300s)
Telescopio: Sky-Watcher Newton 254/1000 f/4
Coma Corrector: TS-Optics GPU Aplanatic
Camera: Omegon VeTEC 571 C (Gain: 100)
Filtro:Optolong L-Quad Enhance Filter (L-QEF)
Montatura: Sky-Watcher EQ6-R Pro
Tele-guida: Sky-Watcher 70/500
Camera guida: ZWO ASI 224 MC
Software: N.I.N.A. (Acquisition), PHD2 (Guiding), PixInsight (Processing)
Copyright: Pasquale Mastroianni
Hope you like it.
