The Ghosts Of Jupiter

[Paul Haese]

This image is of NGC3242 or more commonly known as the Ghost of Jupiter. I called it the Ghosts of Jupiter for what I think are obvious reasons. There appears to be several outbursts which form a series of faint halos which surrounds the planetary. It also appears that the larger cloud below the planetary in this image is related too. Finally to add to the scene there are a number of back ground galaxies which add a bit more interest.

The image is a total of 29 hours integration with Ha, OIII and LRGB. I took some short subs to give definition to the core. Although I think 30 second subs were too long. It probably needs to be about 10 seconds each to give really good definition of the core.

Click here (http://paulhaese.net/NGC3242.html) for larger resolution image

[Andy01]

That's a crackerjack image Paul - love those Vela SNR like Ha/O3 tendrils nearby too - Well done! :thumbsup::thumbsup:

[Stevec35]

Extremely well imaged Paul!

Steve

[cometcatcher]

Wow, that is very nice. Really nice colours and cool background galaxies.

[topheart]

Excellent catch of those outer tendrils....I didn't know they were there!
Cheers,
Tim

[Octane]

Gee, that's outstanding!

Love the subtle hydrogen alpha and oxygen III waves below the Ghost of Jupiter.

H

[LewisM]

Beautiful little trio of galaxies at the 8, 9:30 and 10 o'clock positions too

[Peter Ward]

An A-list/ heavy-hitter image.
Wow....really nice :thumbsup:

[RickS]

Very nice, Paul, though IMO scopes with spiders aren't ideal for small, bright planetaries. I have a heap of data on the Cat's Eye with a C300 that I can't bring myself to finish processing because of the fat diffraction spikes from the PN itself. I see the same in your image though much less objectionable.

Cheers,
Rick.

[gregbradley]

That's a great image Paul.

Fantastic.

Greg.

[Bart]

That's is very nicely done, Paul. And 29 hrs! :eyepop:

[marc4darkskies]

Beautiful image Paul! :thumbsup: Very nicely done!

[Placidus]

An exquisite image. The faint wavy blue bits below the PN are a tour de force.

Did you know that they were there, or were they a serendipitous discovery?

A fantastic result.

Best,
MnT

[Star Catcher]

That is a lovely result Paul. The combination with the nebula sets it off perfectly.

Ted

[atalas]

:eyepop: :thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup:

[RobF]

Beautiful and interesting image - thanks for sharing with us Paul.
Very interested in those extra Ha/OIII areas below the PN.

[alocky]

A superbly deep image of this field that still preserves a remarkable amount of fine detail. I was observing this visually last night under exceptionally good conditions and was able to see the three shells very well in the pn - missed those background galaxies though! I'll have to go back for another look.
cheers,
Andrew.

[Paul Haese]

Thanks everyone for the comments and compliments.



I think the fat diffraction spikes are something I have overlooked, but note that other renditions don't seem to have this problem. Short subs perhaps?




MnT I had seen an image by Don Goldman that had the nebulosity showing and I wondered if I would see those in my field of view. To my surprise I found them there on the first imaging run. So a pleasant confirmation I think. :)

[batema]

Beautiful image Paul.

[RickS]

Hi Paul,

That might help some but with the very short subs we did on the Cats Eye the spikes come back when you integrate and stretch. I'll probably try to model and subtract the spikes when I get more time to play with the data.

The best image I've seen of the GoJ was done with a small refractor. Of course, it needed a very long integration time!

Cheers,
Rick.

[strongmanmike]

Nice job Paul, it's an intriguning field, there are a few shots of this around now, as well as Don, Marco Lorenzi and Kfir Simon have also done nice shots of it too.

I have 14hrs Ha on this from 2014, just sitting waiting to be completed...:rolleyes: I have the bright bits (http://www.pbase.com/strongmanmike2002/image/154904467/original) done though, ready to blend in :)

Mike

[Paul Haese]

Thanks guys for the comments.

Mike, you must have used really short subs to get the bright bits to look like that. Looks like you might have used some drizzle too to resample up. I tried doing something similar but could not get the same results. I think the subs were not short enough and maybe the seeing was not with me.

[multiweb]

Highres looks great. Love that veil like neb below the planetary. :thumbsup: Few faint fuzzies to boot.

[clive milne]

Yep, that's top shelf...
Well done.

[Ryderscope]

An intriguing and complex field Paul. The Ghost of Jupiter is a fascinating object and the additional objects in the field make for a quite a bonus.

[DaveNZ]

Nice work Paul.

You have been churning out lots of long integrations lately.