NGC 6538 (Sh2-158)

NGC 6538 (Sh2-158) in Cepheus

© Velimir Popov & Emil Ivanov 2020

Size: 1800 px

Often overshadowed by the more famous and near lying Bubble Nebula, the emission nebula NGC 7538 (Sh2-158, or LBN 542) is home for a high-mass protostar with a rotating disk that has a diameter of about ten times the diameter of our solar systems (about 800 AU). While we still don't know very much about high-mass protostars, it is assumed that they are surrounded by an accretion disk that drives molecular outflow, like the low-mass protostars.The accretion disk in NGC7538 is very young and extremely massive, and is in the process of forming one or more high-mass protostars. NGC7538 is about 7000 light years away in the constellation Cepheus.

Image details:

Annotation

Center of field RA	23:13:39 (h:m:s)
Center of field DE	+61:30:22 (deg:m:s)
Size	15.9 x 11.6 (arcmin)
Pixel scale:	0.529 (arcsec/pixel)
Orientation:	Up is 1.59 degrees E of N

Charts and image details obtained from Astrometry.net

Optic(s):	ASA 12" Astrograph @ f/6.3 (Newton)
Mount:	ASA DDM85 Standard
Camera:	SBIG STL 11000 M
Filters:	Luminance, Red, Green, Blue, Astronomik filters Ha, OIII Baader filters
Dates/Times:	24,26,27.Nov.2011
Location:	IRIDA Observatory, BG, longitude: E 24 44' 18", latitude: N 41 41' 42"
Exp. Details:	L:6x10 min,R:6x10 min,G:6x10 min,B:6x10 min,Ha:35x15min,OIII:34x15min. Bin 1 Total exp.time: 1275min (22:15 hrs)
More details:	Dark and flat frames reduction
Processing:	PixInsight / PS

e-mail: info@irida-observatory.org