The Bok Globules are dark clouds of dust that are being eroded by the nearly hot blue OB stars.  These globules are also known as Thackeray's Globules after their discoverer.

Image info

Telescope:  Orion 80ED apochromatic refractor at f/7.5

Focus:  Prime focus

Filter:  Astronomik Hydrogen Alpha 13nm FWHM, Astronomik RGB Filters

Mount:  Vixen GPD with Skysensor2000

Camera:  Artemis 285 CCD camera

Guiding:  700mm refractor guidescope, SAC7 camera, autoguided with Guidedog software

Exposure:  H-alpha 70 mins (14 x 300s), RGB  25, 30, 40 mins,

Date:  24th Feb 2006

Processing:  Offset and flat fielding, registering and stacking done in IRIS.  No dark frames.  Curve stretching and Levels in Photoshop CS2.  Luminance image was H-alpha.  LRGB composite in Photoshop.  Luminance layering to increase colour saturation.  Neat Image for noise reduction.

Comments

I aimed for a more natural colour balance in this image, taking care that even dim stars showed characteristic colours.  From inspection of the blue exposures, the nebula appears to be a mix emission and reflection elements.