The Cosmic Arena - Astrophotography Pazmino's Cluster

Stock 23 (Pazmino's Cluster)

Sitting right next to the Soul Nebula, Sh2-202 is a hydrogen rich region spanning for about 2-3 degrees. It does not have much structure with the exception of some dark filamentary nebula near the center. The whole area seems to enclose Stock 23, a cluster also known as Pazmino's cluster - there is some debate on whether this is a real cluster or simply an asterism. Nevertheless, its luminosity do create a blue haze which creates a nice contrast with the reddish hydrogen.

This is a quite elusive object for me. Tried to capture it two year ago but without any sucess. Last year started capturing Ha and this year some RGB: I was hoping to see something in the RGB image but no luck with that. This is a really faint object and way too difficult to capture from my Bortle 8 sky. The solution was to construct the image based on Ha and blend is as best as possible with the RGB background and stars.

I must confess I feel a bit disappointed with the result but sometimes we just need to call it a day and move forward. Maybe I'll try again some year in the future, with a better sky.

Shot at Barcarena, Portugal (Bortle 8) on November 2022 and December 2023.

Technical details as follows:

Ha: 266 x 300'' (22h10)

RED: 58 x 120'' (1h56)

GREEN: 62 x 120'' (2h04)

BLUE: 53 x 120'' (1h46)

Total: 27h56