Location / Date

Zellerndorf, Jan - March 2020

Telescope / Mount / Guiding

ASA 10" Astrograph, ASA 3" Wynne-Corrector (focal length 910mm)
ASA DDM60, no guiding

Camera / Exposure

Moravian G3-16200, Astrodon filters

L 62 x 10min
R 14 x 5min (bin2x2), G 16 x 5min (bin2x2), B 20 x 5min (bin2x2)
Hα 15 x 20min

Total exposure time: 19h 30min

Processing

PixInsight, Fitswork, Photoshop

Notes

This interesting and colorful nebula complex in the constellation Orion consists of the red emission nebula Sh2-263 and the bluish reflection nebula vdB 38. The star, which is responsible for illuminating the nebula's gases is HD 34989, a main sequence blue-white star of magnitude 5.78. Some parts of the nebula complex seems not to be illuminated and appears as a dark nebula masking light from the stars behind it; this dark part are catalogued as LDN 1588 or Barnard 223.

The bright structures have entries in multiple catalogs with always some discrepancy in cross identification. Additional references are LBN 867/866, Ced 44, DG 53, GN 05.19.0 and Magakian 97. The nebula complex is often nicknamed as "Raspberry nebula", "Strawberry nebula" or "Mouldy Strawberry nebula".

Also in this image is the open cluster Dolidze 19 and several background galaxies.