The Rim Nebula
The Rim Nebula (NGC6188) is also known as “The Dragons of Ara” or “The Fighting Dragons of Ara.” It is a beautiful nebula in the southern constellation of Ara. It’s full of glowing gas and dust, and at its center, a cluster of hot, young stars illuminates the nebula, making it one of the most active star-forming regions in our galaxy. The two filaments give an appearance of dragons or serpents battling. My image uses the “hubble-palette” to emphasize the dynamic shapes.
Specifications:
Also Known As: Dragons of Ara
Apparent Size: 20′ x 12′
Magnitude (lower is brighter): n/a
Distance from Earth: 4,000 LY
Over Two Hours Imaging Using a Narrowband Filters in Australia
The image above was taken in the Bortle 4 sky of Australia. This target is too low for my northern latitude, so I rented time on a Australian telescope to capture this widefield object.
EQUIPMENT
Telescope: Takahashi FSQ-106ED
Mount: Paramount MX+
Camera: QHY 600M Pro
Filters: SHO
ACQUISITION
Integration Time: 2.5 hours
RGB: 150 x 300sec
BIN: 1×1
Bortle Scale: 4
CALIBRATION
Darks: 10
Flats: 30
Dark Flats: 30
Offset/Bias: 30
The Ara Constellation
Ara (The Altar) is a southern constellation near the Milky Way. Some other deep sky objects within Ara include NGC 6193, a young star cluster, an open star cluster, NGC 6196 and of course, The Rim Nebula.
The surrounding constellations include: Corona Australis, Scorpius, Norma, Triangulum Australe, Apus, Pavo, and Telescopium.
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*General information regarding constellations, galaxies, nebulae, and planets have been sourced from: AstroBackyard, VisibleDark, Wikipedia, EarthSky, and NASA.