Sashimi

This image shows LDN 1251, a dark nebula in Cepheus sometimes nicknamed the “Rotten Fish Nebula.” I’ve decided to call it Sashimi, because the usual nickname doesn’t really match the delicate and flowing look of this interstellar dust.

The project totals 27 hours of integration to bring out the faint dust structures while keeping them natural and smooth.

LDN 1251 is a dense molecular cloud and an active star-forming region. It is associated with several Herbig–Haro objects, created when jets from newborn stars collide with the surrounding gas. While faint cirrus clouds nearby belong to the IFN, the nebula itself is a true dark nebula, seen in silhouette against the Milky Way’s starlight.

These targets are always a challenge - extremely faint and subtle, requiring long exposure times and careful processing to distinguish real structures from noise.