SH2-230 (Sharpless 230 ) The object is very large and is mixed in with a number of other Sharpless objects in the heart of Auriga. These include SH2-229 (seen on the right side), SH2-236 (just below the middle), SH2-234 (on the left side), and SH2-232 (in the upper left corner). Also seen in the image is Messier 38 near the top and Messier 36 more on the left side of the image. The black and white image shows the entire nebula while the color image shows the heart of it and maybe the brightest part of it. Narrowband color using the SII and OIII filters really won’t work here unless your field of view is mainly of SH2-234 or SH2-236. Otherwise, mostly hydrogen-alpha is picked up, which is usually mapped to green. To capture the brighter parts of SH2-230, you don’t need that long of an exposure, but to get the fainter areas, plan to spend quite a bit of time here. You will also need quite a bit of RGB to get enough color to colorize this nebula. The black and white was taken with an ST-10 XME and a Nikon 105mm lens while the color was done with the STL-6303 and the E-160 F/3.3. The color was published in Sky & Telescope’s Beautiful Universe 2008. For a complete list of the Sharpless Catalog visit my main site at http://www.sharplesscatalog.com