Sharpless 232 (Sh2-232) and Companions 
Sh2-232 (Sharpless 232) is the biggest but faintest member of a complex of diffused nebulas in the Auriga constellation, about 3 degrees from IC405 (the Flaming Star Nebula) and IC410. The other members are Sh2-235 (botton-left respect Sh2-232), the brightest of the group, and Sh2-231 (at right). Less cospicuos in size but not in beauty, Sh2-233 (at far right) completes the picture.
The brightest blue star in the picture is an anonymous A0 star and has a brightness of just 7,1 magnitude.
Full-res file is about 50 Megapixels with a resolution of about 1 arcsec per pixel. It shows an area of sky large 2,0° x 2,0° (for comparison, the full-Moon has a diameter of about 0,5°).
The image is available for Museum, Planetariums, exhibitions, publishers and authors in very high-resolution. If interested in using the image, please read my policy or e-mail me with your request. Copyright: Davide De Martin.
This color image is based on data coming from several photographic plates taken between 1986 and 1989 through the Palomar Observatory's 48-inch (1,2-meter) Samuel Oschin Telescope as a part of the second National Geographic Palomar Observatory Sky Survey (POSS II). The photographs were recorded on two type of glass photographic plates - one sensitive to red light and the other to blue and later they were digitized. Credit: Caltech, Palomar Observatory, Digitized Sky Survey. |
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