Location / Date:

Tivoli, NAM / 30.Mai 2014

Telescope / Lens:

Starfire 127/1040

Mount:

AP1200

Camera:

Central DS Canon 60Da

Exposure time:

1x720" / 14x900" ISO500 -12C

Total exposure:

Description:

Only a few objects of the night sky have a name that fits that perfect like the Cat's Paw Nebula. NGC 6334 is a glowing gas cloud that presembles a paw print. The nebula is one of the most active nursery for high-mass stars of our home galaxy. Inside the Nebula a lot of very young stars with high luminosity appear in a bluish light. Typically they only reach an age of only a few million years. NGC 6334 is located in the constellation of Scorpio in a distance of about 5,500 lightyears. It has a diameter of approximately 50 light years. The reddish light we receive from the Cat's Paw is mainly emiited by hydrogen gas that is exited by young and hot stars. Particulary interesting is the red, fine textured bubble in the lower right part of the picture. Most likely this is either a star that is approaching the end of his lifetime and repelling huge amounts of matter with high speed, or the remnant of a star that has reached the end of his life already and blew up.

Image recording:

Gorden Konieczek

Image processing:

Nico Geisler, Frank Iwaszkiewicz, Gorden Konieczek