Sharpless 122 (Sh2-122) is an emission nebula located in the constellation Scorpius, approximately 2,500 light-years away from Earth. The nebula was discovered by the American astronomer David Dunlap in 1954 as part of his work cataloging H II regions. It is considered to be part of a larger complex of gas and dust that contributes to star formation. The nebula features a prominent arc-like structure and is associated with a cluster of young stars that are likely responsible for ionizing the surrounding gas, causing it to glow.

I imaged the nebula at the 2024 Okie-Tex Star Party near Kenton, OK over the course of five evenings using my Stellarview 115 triplet and my Atik 460EX CCD. Skies were essentially ideal during the week. Ha,O3,G, and B data was collected over the course of the five nights. I'd intended to get R and possibly L data, but those late night N.I.N.A. runs crashed for some unknown reason. I used the Ha data as red channel data. The blue filter data didn't show much nebulosity, but the O3 did, so I assume there is at least some ionized oxygen in the nebula (it's reported to be low in oxygen).

The field of view used to acquire the image is shown in the Imaging Details box. The image at top is cropped and reduced in size (to roughly 25% scale). Clicking the image above will open up a larger, (also cropped) version.

Imaging Details
Imaging Dates	Sept 29 - Oct 3, 2024
Imaging Location	Okie-Tex S.P. (+36.90°, -102.95°)
Constellation	Cygnus
Imaging Telescope	Stellarvue 115 fluorite triplet
Imaging Camera	Atik 460EX
Imaging Filter(s)	Ha, G, B, O3
Exposures	G,B - 180 sec, Ha, O3 - 300 sec
Guiding	50mm f/4 guide scope, 2x Barlow, Lodestar X2, PhD Guiding
Image Processing	Sub alignment and initial stretches were performed using Nebulosity; Photoshop CS5 was used to process the stacked subs. Topaz DeNoise AI was used to reduce noise and sharpen the image.