NGC 6188 | Deep Space Project

NGC 6188 Fighting Dragons of Ara

NGC 6188 is a stunning emission nebula located in the constellation Ara, approximately 4,000 light-years away from Earth. The nebula is characterized by its striking shades of red and blue, which are produced by the emission of ionized hydrogen and oxygen atoms. NGC 6188 is also home to several massive stars, including the bright blue star HD 150135, which illuminates the surrounding gas and dust. The intricate patterns and textures of the nebula are a testament to the complex interplay between the intense radiation emitted by the stars and the surrounding interstellar medium. NGC 6188 is a fascinating astronomical object that continues to captivate astronomers and stargazers alike.

NGC 6188 is an emission nebula located about 4,000 light years away in the constellation Ara. The bright open cluster NGC 6193, visible to the naked eye, is responsible for a region of reflection nebulosity within NGC 6188.

In 1836, astronomer John Herschel discovered this with his reflector telescope. Through is 18 1/4 inch reflector, he noted a 'faint nebula in which the preceding part of the cluster is involved.

NGC 6188 is a star forming nebula, and is sculpted by the massive, young stars that have recently formed there – some are only a few million years old. This spark of formation was probably caused when the last batch of stars went supernova.

Bottom right of the picture is another emission nebula, NGC 6164-5. Expelled gaseous material from the centre star possibly due to its fast roattion led to this symmetric shape of this bi-polar nebula. Its diameter spans 4 light years across.

This image was taken under light polluted skies of Singapore.

Individual channels were collected via dedicated astronomical camera and combined with special software to form a complete "true colour" RGB image.

Equipment:

-Mount: Explore Scientific iExos-100

-Telescope: WO Z61

-Camera: QHY 163M

-Filters: Antlia 3.5nm Ha, SII, OIII

Details:

-Ha: 210x 240s (14 hrs)

-SII: 150x 240s (10 hrs)

-OIII: 210x 240s (14hrs)

-Total Integration Time: 38 hrs

Individual channels were collected via dedicated astronomical camera and combined with special software to form a complete "true colour" RGB image. For some reason, my OIII data seemed to be the most noisy among the other data set, it could've been due to the more extreme high cloud conditions + sky noise when I shot the OIII data/subs.

Red: Sulfur-II

Green: H-ALpha

Blue: Oxygen-III

These three channels are then combined in a software (I used Pixinsight BUT Photoshop will work equally well) to form a RGB image. Resulting image was a bright green due to H-Alpha being very dominant in the night sky (and thus the green channel). Further colour tweaking was required to get the desired Hubble colour palette.