Lost Worlds

Like a ghostly moon, the Bubble Nebula hangs suspended in the vastness of space.

I captured this image over many nights using my Skywatcher Esprit 120 apochromatic telescope.

I used Narrowband filters and captured 3 primary spectral emissions. Hydrogen-Alpha, Doubly-Ionized Oxygen, and Sulphur II.

So what exactly does it mean to capture space-light in this way? What do I mean by Narrowband or H-alpha emission?

Well, as you may know, the most abundant form of matter in the universe is Hydrogen.

Most of the hydrogen in our galaxy is either inside stars or quite literally chillin in mostly-invisible clouds around -450 Fahrenheit.

BUT sometimes those clouds collapse under their own gravity and baby stars are born, and those baby stars are extremely hot! They blast the surrounding clouds of gas and dust with radiation, particularly UV, ionizing it!

In Narrowband imaging, I use specialized filters to capture the unique photons that are produced in this process.

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