NGC5189 - Looks like something from Startrek

[cometcatcher]

Slightly off the beaten track, this is NGC5189, The Spiral Nebula. An interesting and irregular shaped planetary nebula 3000 light years away in the southern constellation of the fly (Musca).

GSO 10" F4 Newtonian, HEQ5 Pro, Canon 1100D FSM, Baader Semi-Apo filter, Baader MPCC MKIII, 585 x 30 seconds unguided.

Large field at Astrobin ---> https://astrob.in/351099/0/

Soooo, if I get a small chip astro cam like the cooled ASI178MC, will I be able to get more gooderer pics of tiny objects like this? Because I want em. They fascinate me. This thing is bizarre.

[RickS]

It's a very cool object but I would have thought it a terrible target for a DSLR. You've proven me wrong again, Kevin :lol:

[strongmanmike]

That's a beauty Kevin!...you don't get out much huh...? :eyepop:

Mike

[cometcatcher]

While small, it's quite bright. The DSLR struggles more with large and faint I think Rick.



Thanks Mike! Don't know how come I missed this one before.

[strongmanmike]

Hope this helps..?

We have similar scopes, you are at 1000mm FL while I am at 1120mm, yours is 10" and mine is 12" so not much difference.

Here is the same PN taken with NB filters through my scope (5 years ago) using a Starlightxpress H694 CCD with 4.54 micron pixels, providing an image scale of 0.83"/pix

NGC 5129 (http://www.pbase.com/strongmanmike2002/image/151209938/original)

Hardly any exposure as it was only a very quick first light test image for the new camera and off axis guider setup. It will be up to you if you think the difference is there :shrug:...personally I don't think there is that much :)

Mike

[E_ri_k]

Very cool Kevin. I recal catching this one my self a while ago. A very interesting object, I was surprised. Good job :thumbsup:

Erik

[topheart]

Hi Kevin,

A very nice spiral nebula. very well done!!


I am amazed that you can do so well with a DSLR....!!

Here is my version with an astro CCD setup for your comparison too. I think you are very similar, but my scope is quite different with a much longer focal length.....

https://savannahskies.smugmug.com/Nebula/i-QSg8wGf/A

Cheers,
Tim

[Stevec35]

It's a great looking NGC 5189 with your current setup Kevin. What you see of course depends so much on the specific object. In general you're always going to do better with a CCD camera on these tiny objects though. I image a lot of them. Here's a random sample:

http://members.pcug.org.au/~stevec/Lo5_STL6303_RC.htm

Steve

[Slawomir]

Another great image Kevin - well done :thumbsup:

[cometcatcher]

Thanks for that Mike. Good comparison. I thought there would be more difference. Gives me something to think about.



Thanks Erik!



Thanks for the comparison Tim. The longer focal length shows.



Thanks Steve!



Thanks Suavi!

Well that's helped, I think. I suspect this object is DSLR friendly though. And I know some are very very hard, like Abell 35.

[Placidus]

Well done Kevin! Lots of solid detail there.

[cometcatcher]

Thanks M&T! Do you have an image of this? I'd like to see what your 20" could do.

[PeterSEllis]

Hi Kevin,
I used a DSLR for many years, and managed to get some great shots. Then one Christmas when it was hot, I noticed my Darks looked like Reds. I then added a cold finger to my DSLR, my Reds where back to being Darks.
What eventually convinced me to go to a CCD/CMOS, was trying to capture the Rosette and Helix Nebula, my camera didn't go far enough into the red (hydrogen alpha), so I couldn't get all the detail.
The big thing I noticed when I went from a DSLR to CCD camera, was the noise floor was so much lower, which meant that I didn't need work anywhere near as hard at processing the image. Noise floor becomes very important when you are dealing with heavy light pollution as I have too.
Now I see those little faint background galaxies appear in my shots which weren't there on my DSLR shots, I would never go back to a DSLR.
There is a little bit of a learning curve when you swap over, but it is well worth it in the end.
Just my thoughts on the subject.

Cheers
Peter

[cometcatcher]

Thanks Peter. Yes thermal noise is a big problem here in the tropical summer, which lasts for a good 6 months. The DSLR is okay below 20C, but above that things start to get lost in the noise. But then summer is always cloudy here anyway. I might get half a dozen clear nights in 6 months.

Nothing much I can do about it in the short term. At least winter will give the DSLR a good run.