A link to my blog for more information and images:http://astroanarchy.blogspot.fi/2012/12/the-ghost-of-christmas-past-ic-63.html


I have shot several times this supernova remnant in Gemini. In this image, there are three different exposure sets combined, first from the year 2010 and two others from this season. Total exposure time is now around 20h. Latest images for this target are shot at 11.02 this week, 3h of H-alpha emission.


IC 443 (also known as the Jellyfish Nebula and Sharpless 248 (Sh2-248)) is a Galactic supernova remnant (SNR) in the constellation Gemini. It locates visually near the star Eta Geminorum at distance of about 5000 light years.

IC 443 may be the remains of a supernova that occurred 3,000 - 30,000 years ago. The same supernova event likely created the neutron star CXOU J061705.3+222127, the collapsed remnant of the stellar core. IC 443 is one of the best-studied cases of supernova remnants interacting with surrounding molecular clouds



Technical details




Processing work flow:

Image acquisition, MaxiDL v5.07.

Stacked and calibrated in CCDStack2.

Levels, curves and color combine in PS CS3.




Optics, Meade LX200 GPS 12" @ f5

Camera, QHY9

Guiding, SXV-AO, an active optics unit, and Lodestar guide camera 8Hz

Image Scale, ~0,8 arc-seconds/pixel

Exposures for the H-alpha, emission of ionized Hydrogen = 20h

Narrowband cahnnels for ionized Oxygen and Sulfur are taken from an older wide field image.