Tulip Nebula Area: Narrowband Images
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Tulip Nebula Area: Natural Color from Narrowband

The tulip nebula is the bright object on the left, also known as SH2-101, cataloged by astronomer Stewart Sharpless.  Sharpless created a catalog of HII objects, many of which are good but challenging targets for amateur astronomers. The natural color technique is described on my astronomy workflow page.  I really like the pointy dark nebulae on the right part of he image. 

I like the presentation/orientation here, but it is mirror reversed which makes identifying things a bit of a challenge!  Barnard 147 is the top-right pointy area that aims mostly right, and B144 seems to be a catch-all for general dark areas in the frame.  I believe LDN 858 must be the pointy area in the far right.  Here's a link to a tulip image that identifies some objects.  I believe the bright stars right middle are NGC 6871, if this page is right ;-) (mouse-over to see the ID).  The dark blob top center/left is B146.  So, key dark nebula visible include B146, B147, B144, and LDN858.

Tulip Nebula Area in Cygnus

This narrowband image features the Tulip nebula and the surrounding area.  It's a slightly different version than that shown on my Wimberley 2015 trip page here.  I really like the pointy dark nebulae on the right part of he image.

 I was inspired to tackle this area by Don Taylor's excellent image shown here.  I need a lot more exposure to come close to what Don accomplished.

Image Details: This is a Hubble Palette narrowband image, composed of 6.5 hours total exposure:  37 * 5 min H-alpha, 18 * 5 min SII, and 23 * 5 min OIII.  Image captured at Starry Nights in 2015.   AP 900GTO mount, SBIG ST-8300 camera along with the Takahashi FSQ-85 "Baby Q" telescope (without the reducer).  My processing techniques and workflow are discussed here.  I used the Carboni "Enhance DSO and Reduce Stars" action on this image, which is the primary difference as compared with the version on the Wimberley 2015 trip page.

Below: info returned by

nova.astrometry.net

for the top image

Here's an image showing the "correct" orientation for reference:

Tulip Nebula Correct Orientation