WR 134 - A Wolf-Rayet Star with Nebulosity

Oh my gosh, what a terrible summer season for astrophotography. There was maybe 5 relatively clear nights since July 12 when I completed the tandem telescope setup. I had expected to image my favorites by now - the Trifid, the Lagoon, etc., with my new ASI2600 camera, but alas, that's probably not going to happen now as they are slowly receding in the southwest. I may have another couple of weeks to give them a try while the moon is out of the picture, but if the weather doesn't cooperate soon I may need to wait until next year. 

However, I did point my scope to an object I have never imaged before. It is well placed in the sky, high and to the SE allowing me to run long series of narrowband images throughout the entire evening. This object is WR134, a Wolf-Rayet star with surrounding nebulosity. A tough one for sure, but I wanted to give it a try. The star itself is nondescript, but because of the intense radiation it spews forth, the surrounding gas, excited by the star's radiation, glows brightly.

Wolf–Rayet stars, often abbreviated as WR stars, are a rare heterogeneous set of stars with unusual spectra showing prominent broad emission lines of ionized helium and highly ionized nitrogen or carbon. The spectra indicate very high surface enhancement of heavy elements, depletion of hydrogen, and strong stellar winds. The surface temperatures of known Wolf-Rayet stars range from 20,000 K to around 210,000 K, hotter than almost all other kinds of stars. (Wiki)

WR 134 is a variable Wolf-Rayet star located around 6,000 light years away from Earth in the constellation of Cygnus, surrounded by a faint bubble nebula blown by the intense radiation and fast wind from the star. It is five times the radius of the sun, but due to a temperature over 63,000 K it is 400,000 times as luminous as the Sun. (Wiki)

Over the nights of August 2, 3 and 6, I captured both Ha and Oiii narrowband data, 65 subs of 300 sec exposures for each, and a series of RGB subs to get the star colors correct. I had planned to get Sii data as well (to complete the standard SHO Hubble Palette) but the clouds moved in and stayed for awhile! So, with what I had, I processed a HOO palette, the results shown in the image below.

WR134 and Nebulosity (August 2021)
WO GT102 f/5.6  -  ASI2600mm Pro
65x300s Ha; 65x300s Oiii; 10x30s RGB Stars

WR134 is the brighter star in the small group of four stars at the center of the image. The enlarged central region clearly shows the star (reddish-white at center) with the bubble nebula surrounding it. The upper region of the bubble, bluish in color, is the Oiii ionized gas. 

Then, some clear skies presented themselves on and about August 25th. I had to setup and try to get the missing Sii data, which I was able to do over two evenings. I managed to get 67 subs of 300sec. I added this new data into the mix and with some re-processing of the original data with the new Sii data I created the final image using a modified SHO Hubble palette.

WR134 and Nebulosity (August 2021)
WO GT102 f/5.6  -  ASI2600mm Pro
65x300s Ha; 65x300s Oiii; 67x300s Sii; 10x30s RGB Stars

Full resolution images can be found at XCalRocketMan's Astrobin page

So, I have at least one new image to add to my collection from the 2021 summer season. Hopefully I'll capture some other deep space summer gems before they move out of view until next year.