A Prawn Cocktail

IC 4628, the 'Prawn Nebula' (can you see the prawn?), can be a challenging target. The angular size of the most colourful part is somewhat more than a degree across -- too small to give a pleasing result with a wide-field imager, like Telescope Live's AUS-2 Takahashi telescope, but too big to observe easily with bigger instruments, like CHI-1, the Rio Hurtado Planewave.

Some time ago I decided to try to tackle this target by constructing a mosaic with CHI-1; this is the result (a slight crop from a 3x2 mosaic). If I were to re-observe IC 4628 now, I would certainly opt for CHI-2 or CHI-4, which should achieve similar results much more cheaply -- and with MUCH less effort required for processing!!

This is a target which rewards the use of narrow-band SHO filters and a 'Hubble Palette' rendition. Blue regions trace the most highly ionized gas (O III emission), which is notably extensive in this target, the result of two young, hot stars embedded in the nebula.