The Cat's Paw

Located very close to the Lobster Nebula in the southern constellation of Scorpius, the Cat's Paw Nebula (NGC 6334) does indeed have a striking resemblance to a feline footprint.

It's quite low in the sky here from Tucson (at a maximum of about 22º above the horizon), not ideal for imaging due to the extra atmosphere at this angle introducing more distortion and filtering out many more photons.

The central region of the Nebula shows very complex and dynamic gas clouds and several smaller dark nebulas; I've included zoomed-in view in Hydrogen alpha with stars removed.

Click or tap to enlarge/double-tap to zoom

Total exposure time: 15h 45m (56,700s)
Image resolution: 3,353 × 3,614px (1.919″/px)
Shot from my driveway near Tucson, AZ in May 2022

Telescope: William Optics RedCat 51 (250mm focal length ƒ/4.9)
Camera: ZWO ASI294MM Pro
Filters: ZWO 7nm narrowband filters in Sulphur-II, Hydrogen alpha and Oxygen-III, ZWO RGB filters
Mount: iOptron CEM26

Copyright © 2022 by Thomas Fuchs. All rights reserved. You're free to use any of my images as wallpaper on your computer or phone. For other uses, including commercial use, derivative works or republishing, please contact me at thomas@slash7.com.