The Saturn Nebula

[strongmanmike]

I wanted to shoot something while the almost 3/4 Moon was up and that wouldn't be affected too much by it or suffer from gradients etc....the seeing was ok, so something smaaaall....

Well, at the other end of the planetary nebula spectrum from The Mighty Helix Nebula....is the tiny Saturn Nebula :D. A favourite visual target of mine through a scope on a steady night :)

The inner ring of NGC 7009 spans just 25 arc sec of sky and the overall dimensions out to the ends of those bright Ansae are about 45" X 35" making it a challenging object to image, especialy at 1120mm FL :D. About a third of a light year across and some 3000 light years away, NGC 7009 is a tiny planetary nebula in Aquarius.

You can read more about NGC 7009 HERE (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saturn_Nebula)

The Saturn Nebula (http://www.pbase.com/strongmanmike2002/image/166120526/original)

I'm thunking... this might be similar to an eyepiece view through a very large visual scope, if our eyes were much more sensitive to colour at low light levels...:question:

There is actually an extremely faint diffuse mottled OIII outer halo, many times the size of the main nebula but this would have required a fair bit more exposure and under no moon, you can see it in this awesome CHART32 (http://www.chart32.de/index.php/component/k2/item/50)shot

[markas]

At f.l. of 1120mm - heroic! An amazing result.
Mark

PS: what is the pixel size of the camera?

[Stevec35]

That's a very nice Saturn nebula Mike with good detail given that you don't have much focal length to play with.

Cheers

Steve

[Placidus]

:bowdown:

That must be Titan down the bottom.

[vlazg]

Wow mike , that is fantastic, not much different from Chart 32, beer must help:)

[SimmoW]

More like the 'Alien Brain' neb Mike, wow an exotic one here!

[RickS]

Nice one, Mikey! I love its little pink cheeks :) Some great detail for your image scale and such a teeny weeny object.

[Ryderscope]

Great work with your rig Mike.

[gregbradley]

You're really becoming the master of the planetary. A fabulous image. You get such detail from these.

Greg.

[atalas]

Very cool Mike :thumbsup:

[Atmos]

Really nice smile!
How much exposure time when in this? It is small but relatively bright.

[alocky]

Hi Mike - ever since Kent Wallace inspired me to take planetary nebula observations seriously with a big dob, it really highlighted the gap between the eyepiece view at high power and the best amateur images of which this is definitely one. It's interesting to compare your image - there is a wealth of detail in there that's too faint to see in the 25", but because of the long exposure a lot of the subtle fine structure is lost. Still - a wonderful effort!
I guess we're going to need planetary style video imaging to show these objects off. Next generation of cameras maybe?
Cheers
Andrew.

[multiweb]

+1 Fantastic details given your FL. :thumbsup:

[peter_4059]

Beaut image Mike. Amazing details for such a small target.

[strongmanmike]

Wow, thanks so much everyone, glad you all enjoyed this one :love2: Was a bit of a "Hmmm?..what can I image while waiting for my main target to rise..?" sort of target :)

Overall I was pretty happy with how the final image came together, it wasn't the best seeing I get here but was still good enough to bother tackling such a target :thumbsup:

As far as focal length goes, a search of other images of this object out there, makes it very clear that apart from a small handful of shots taken from excellent sites with sub arc sec seeing and big RC's, my result stacks up to, or exceeds, most versions taken with much longer focal length scopes :). As I have said before, in the end it is "image scale" that counts and not focal length as such, of course the seeing quality is No. 1 and finally your optical quality (plus AO if you have it), that produce the resolution :)

Colin, hmmm?..do you not read the image credits under images mate :shrug: :rolleyes: ....been putting all that info under every image at my website for ooooh?..over 10 years now dude :lol:

Mark my image scale is 0.84"/pix (also in my image credits ;))

Andrew, thanks mate and yes through a big scope under good seeing at high power I would imagine it would be a bit like the Homunculus (http://www.pbase.com/strongmanmike2002/image/159457206/original) around Eta Carina, hard to replicate the moments of good seeing when the fine stuff shows up in a big dob...of course you see no colour though ;) :)..maybe a touch of orange in the Homunculus.

Mike and Trish, thanks for the subservient M&M's :P

Thanks again all who commented :)

Mike
did I use enough emoticons...? :question: :shrug: :hi:...:rofl:

...sorry

[topheart]

Top shelf Mike!
Outstanding!!
Cheers,
Tim

[strongmanmike]

Thanks so much Tim :thumbsup:...not bad for a quicky I guess, I just did this while I was waiting for NGC 1398 to get into position :D

Mike

[Marke]

wow so much info in such a little object and what an amazing looking object it is

[cometcatcher]

That's nice. :)

[strongmanmike]

Cheers Mark, agreed



Bit small for my finder so...sorry :P

[rustigsmed]

awesome detail, again, this is pretty bright i guess a tough decision on sub length.

[strongmanmike]

Cheers Rus, I did 60sec, 30sec and 10sec subs through each filter

Mike