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.
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.
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.
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.
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?
Quote:
Originally Posted by 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
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.
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?
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!