The Pencil Nebula NGC 2736

Image Description and Details : The Pencil Nebula is an emission nebula in the constellation Vela. It’s a small part of a supernova remnant that exploded about 11,000 years ago. The pencil-like shape suggests that it is part of the supernova shockwave that encountered a region of dense gas. It’s that intersection that causes the nebula to glow. The colors of the various regions in the nebula yield clues about this cooling process. Some regions are still so hot that the emission is dominated by ionized oxygen atoms, which glow blue/green in the picture. Other regions have cooled more and are seen emitting red in the image (cooler hydrogen atoms). In this situation, color shows the temperature of the gas.
The image was acquired over 9 days between 4/14/23 and 5/5/23 with total integration time of about 38 hours. It was processed in the HOO palette with RGB for the stars.
Ha - 233 x 300 secs
O3 - 197 x 300 secs
RBG - 8 x 300 sec each

Copyright: Daniel Stern