Ngc 6164

[DiscoDuck (Paul)]

An attempt at NGC 6164 from the wintery Adelaide suburbs.

A lot of the data, especially the OIII, was captured in very poor conditions - dew, bad seeing and poor transparency. This and the fact that the OIII is surprisingly faint and this was taken from the suburbs meant that even with a lot of OIII data it was still very hard to bring the shell out. So the 24 hours of OIII sounds like overkill but is not that great!

About 8 hrs of Ha and 3hrs x 3 RGB for star colours too. ZWO ASI1600MM-C and RC8 on a Mach1. ZWO filters.

I guess I hadn't appreciated how faint the shell was. Almost invisible in individual narrowband subs and not there at all in the RGB!

Also the halos from the ZWO narrowband filters are very noticeable around the brighter stars. Could be time to splash out on Astrodons!

Higher res available on Astrobin here

Paul

[Retrograde (Pete)]

Very nice, deep image there Paul.

[multiweb (Marc)]

Superb details and colours Paul. Well done indeed.

[Placidus (Mike and Trish)]

One of the best bubbles we've seen

[DiscoDuck (Paul)]

Thank you Pete, Marc and Mike n Trish.

[strongmanmike (Michael)]

Great result Paul, well done Did you collect the OIII with no Moon? OIII should always be collected with no (or very little) Moon in the sky

Mike

[DiscoDuck (Paul)]

Originally Posted by strongmanmike

Great result Paul, well done Did you collect the OIII with no Moon? OIII should always be collected with no (or very little) Moon in the sky

Mike

Thanks Mike. I think a lot of it was with no to little moon. Frankly by the end I was sick of dew and bad seeing, and was willing to take any clear night. Hence most of the data is of a quality I'd normally bin!! (and I don't mean that in the 2x2 sense! ).

[codemonkey (Lee)]

That's a helluva effort right there, Paul. Nice one.

[DiscoDuck (Paul)]

Thanks Lee.

[Bart]

That looks very nice Mr Duck, well done! Hows the Mach 1 going for you?



I am having similar halo issues with the Baader filters so when my camera comes back from repairs I am going to try a few things around spacing.

[DiscoDuck (Paul)]

Originally Posted by Bart

That looks very nice Mr Duck, well done! Hows the Mach 1 going for you?



I am having similar halo issues with the Baader filters so when my camera comes back from repairs I am going to try a few things around spacing.

Thanks Master Simpson!


I think with the ZWOs the halos are internal reflections and unavoidable. Only $$ can fix it!!


The Mach1 is going well thanks - in spite of already being a legacy product with the Mach2 coming out!

[Ryderscope (Rodney)]

The bubble has popped out quite well Paul. Nicely done

[DiscoDuck (Paul)]

Thanks Rodney.

[Paul Haese]

Nice going Paul, when I did this I noticed the OIII shell was hard to capture too. It required a lot of time to really bring it out. 24 hours of OIII is a lot though. In any event it is a good image of this target.

[DiscoDuck (Paul)]

Thanks Paul. I guess it took longer in the light pollution. That shell is so faint that even in narrowband it is lost in the background noise of light pollution - especially with a bit of a moon up and poor seeing/transparancy.

[Paul Haese]

Originally Posted by DiscoDuck

Thanks Paul. I guess it took longer in the light pollution. That shell is so faint that even in narrowband it is lost in the background noise of light pollution - especially with a bit of a moon up and poor seeing/transparancy.

I agree with Mike that trying to get OIII in moonless conditions is best and depending on what filter you have. Although I sometimes try to get it due to the 3nm filter I am using. Still it is best to get it when no moon is present.

[DiscoDuck (Paul)]

Originally Posted by Paul Haese

I agree with Mike that trying to get OIII in moonless conditions is best and depending on what filter you have. Although I sometimes try to get it due to the 3nm filter I am using. Still it is best to get it when no moon is present.

Sounds like solid advice, Paul. This was a 7nm filter too, which didn't help
But in winter I guess you take the clear nights you get



Now if only the Aussie dollar would improve and make the Astrodons a bit more affordable!

Edit to add: quick back of the envelope calculation shows that with a 3nm filter in (my usual) dark sky site vs my 7nm suburban attempt, 3 hours of OIII should have matched this 24 hour shot in terms of SNR!

[Slawomir (Suavi)]

A very nice shot of a challenging target Paul

[DiscoDuck (Paul)]

Thank you, Suavi.

[willik (Willik)]

That is a very nice image Paul well done.
Martin