N206 Nebula and Supernova Remnant

N206 Nebula and Supernova Remnant

In the Large Magellanic Cloud

Constellation: Mensa
Ra: 5h 30m 45s
Dec: -71d 3m 58s
Distance: 157,000 light years
Image Size: 31' x 31'
North: Up right, East up left

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Description

This fascinating structure near the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) contains a large HII emission region referred to as LH-a 120-206 (N206) and a supernova remnant (SNR B 0532-71.0), as described by Williams et al. (2005).  The SNR has an estimated age of 23,000 – 27,000 years.  The main emission region is about 13 arcmin long in the NW-SE direction (horizontal in the above image).  I believe that the  SNR (also often referred to as N206) is the circular structure near the top left (NE) of the main nebula.  Wiliams et al. (Ast. J 132, 1877-1889, 2006) did not find infrared emission from the SNR pointing to the absence of a substantial dust cloud in the vicinity.  The nebular detail and color comes from the use of oxygen (OIII – color mapped to blue-green) and hydrogen (H-a – color mapped to red/magenta) narrowband filters.  Star colors come from RGB filters.   The globular cluster in the upper left is NGC 2031 and the open cluster of stars toward the upper right is NGC 2010.  Show below (courtesy of S. Rasool) is an annotated image of the other structures.

Exposure: 16.5 hrs Total; 8 hrs H-a, 7 hrs OIII, 1.5 hrs RGB
Telescope: Planewave CDK20 0.5 m
Mount: Planewave Ascension 200
Oag: Astrodon MonsterMOAG
Acquisition: ACP8-Expert
Calibration: CCDWare
Observatory Site: iTelescopes.net, Siding Spring, NSW, Australia
Camera: SBIG STX 16803
Filters: Astrodon 3 nm H-a and OIIII, Gen 2 E-Series RGB
Guider: SX Lodestar
Camera Operation: MaximDL 5.24
Processing: Adobe Photoshop CC 2015
Image Date: 10/20/2015 - 11/10/2015

2 Comments

  1. Sakib

    Hey Don I love what you have produced here, the colours are technicolour wonderment! The SNR is the round structure near the top of the main complex. My only criticism is that the RGB is a bit short to do the background of the LMC full majesty. Always love how deep your images are, there must surely be some uncatalogued nebulae in there! Amazed you haven’t discovered a PN yet!

    Reply
    • astrodon

      Thanks, Sakib. I thought that round object was the SNR. I’ll let you discover the PNs!!

      Reply

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