The Dragon’s Heart

This is likely to be the first ever high res colour image featuring this SNR in Ara.
I’ve searched and searched the web for examples but have only found 2-3 wide field camera images.
This is a six panel mosaic in HaRGB data gathered over 6 months from my backyard in suburban Melbourne, Australia.
I first noticed this on an Ha Galaxy survey, but for some reason it’s been largely overlooked by amateur astrophotographers.
Credit is due to John Gleason, who captured the region in Ha four years ago, but I wanted to create a colour image, so 208 subs later – here it is!
Took forever to register, and process, and shooting RGB under LP is not for the feint hearted!
Anyway, thanks for looking, I hope you enjoy the image 🙂

Gold Award (with Distinction) 2018 AIPP Victorian Professional Photography Awards

Gold Award 2018 AIPP Australian Professional Photography Awards

Image chosen as Nasa APOD 2018 January 11th

Visit APOD HERE

About this Nebula

Large and dramatically shaped, this cosmic cloud spans nearly 7 degrees or 14 full moons across planet Earth’s sky toward the southern constellation Ara. Difficult to image, the filamentary apparition is cataloged as RCW 114 and traced in this telescopic mosaic by the telltale reddish emission of ionized hydrogen atoms. In fact, RCW 114 has been recognized as a supernova remnant. Its extensive filaments of emission are produced as the still expanding shockwave from the death explosion of a massive star sweeps up the surrounding interstellar medium. Consistent estimates place its distance at over 600 light-years, indicating a diameter of about 100 light-years or so. Light from the supernova explosion that created RCW 114 would have reached Earth around 20,000 years ago. A spinning neutron star or pulsar has recently been identified as the remains of the collapsed stellar core. Consistent estimates place its distance at over 600 light-years, indicating a diameter of about 100 light-years or so. Light from the supernova explosion that created RCW 114 would have reached Earth around 20,000 years ago. A spinning neutron star or pulsar has recently been identified as the remains of the collapsed stellar core. (APOD)

About APOD

Astronomy Picture of the Day (APOD) is originated, written, coordinated, and edited since 1995 by Robert Nemiroff and Jerry Bonnell. The APOD archive contains the largest collection of annotated astronomical images on the internet.

APOD in general and the APOD site served from NASA specifically places links solely on information content and does not endorse any commercial product nor guarantee claims or sales made on any linked pages.
In real life, Bob and Jerry are two professional astronomers who spend most of their time researching the universe. Bob is a professor at Michigan Technological University in Houghton, Michigan, USA, while Jerry is a scientist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland USA. They are two married, mild and lazy guys who might appear relatively normal to an unsuspecting guest.Together, they have found new and unusual ways of annoying people such as staging astronomical debates.

Apod selects images from the Hubble, Cassini Spacecraft, and the world’s top observatories. A select few amateur astronomy images are occasionally featured. To have one’s image chosen by APOD/NASA is generally regarded as the highest honour for an amateur astrophotographer.