Lunacy: A Plucked Chook (edit: now, with alternate roast)

[lazjen (Chris)]

Edit: Alternate process after feedback:



Lossless version is here: https://flic.kr/p/VJHTXv


Original Post:

Just before the full moon this month I was able to get out and try to sort out the spacing required for using the 0.6 reducer with the Sharpstar 107PH. I've discovered that I do not quite have the correct combination of connectors/spacers to be correct, but I'm getting close. Although the (rotated) image has been partially cropped to remove some vignetting, I've left some evidence of the spacing issues in a couple of corners (near the top of the view).

I think to get the best out of this reducer, even if I ever sort out the spacing properly, I will need to eventually go to larger filters - the 1.25" vignette too much. I think I lose about 15% on the widest axis.



Larger view without the jpg compression: https://flic.kr/p/VCCevg

The details:
Sharpstar 107PH with a 0.6 reducer
ZWO ASI1600MM-C at -15C, Unity settings.
Ha 13 x 180 sec
OIII 12 x 180 sec
SII 12 x 180 sec

Darks and flats applied.

Processed in PixInsight.

In what seems to be a reoccurring theme for me, the imaging session was interrupted by clouds and so this is all I was able to get.

Feel free to give feedback, etc. There's one feature on the image that I'm still trying to find out more about (as in if it's real or some strange artifact). Near the top far right of the image, you might be able to see a small mostly blue "circle". It's outside the main nebula, above 2 brighter stars, maybe about 1/6th the way down from the top. You might need to look at the larger version to see the feature. Any ideas what it is?

[RickS (Rick)]

Getting there, Chris! A bit more tweaking and you should be in business. You have a nice big FOV.

The "feature" looks like a small planetary to me. If nova.astrometry.net wasn't down I'd do a blind plate solve and try to find it for you. Have you tried AnnotateImage?

Cheers,
Rick.

[Placidus (Mike and Trish)]

Hi, Chris,

Your work is seriously improving. That's one tasty chook. (We've had to hide it from Holly, Molly, Polly, and Boris the rooster, so they don't get upset.)

The little blue circle: You've rediscovered a planetary nebula. Well done!

Suggestions: If by a miracle the sky cleared, we'd suggest a night of just SII only, so that you could balance the colours a bit more and get a bit more red into the image without it getting gritty. The image is already so promising that more exposure on all the channels, but especially SII would be time well spent.

Only 15% vignetting! Oh to be so lucky. On our 2" filters, we're down 30% in the corners on a much smaller FOV.

[lazjen (Chris)]

Originally Posted by RickS

Getting there, Chris! A bit more tweaking and you should be in business. You have a nice big FOV.

Indeed. With the 2 scopes I can do a few steps between approx 400mm and 2000mm - which is more than enough for now for the time I seem to have to collect data.

Originally Posted by RickS

The "feature" looks like a small planetary to me. If nova.astrometry.net wasn't down I'd do a blind plate solve and try to find it for you. Have you tried AnnotateImage?

Yeah, that was the first place I tried to do the plate solve, but like you I discovered it was down - so I thought to appeal to the wise ones out there for help.

I really should set it up locally, but convenience/laziness has won so far.

I also tried AnnotateImage, but it didn't give anything useful. I'll try tweaking things a bit to see if I can get something from it.

Originally Posted by Placidus

Your work is seriously improving. That's one tasty chook. (We've had to hide it from Holly, Molly, Polly, and Boris the rooster, so they don't get upset.)

Haha - and thanks.

I have to admit that it has turned out better than I expected given the short time on it and the full moon around.

Originally Posted by Placidus

The little blue circle: You've rediscovered a planetary nebula. Well done!

Originally Posted by Placidus

Suggestions: If by a miracle the sky cleared, we'd suggest a night of just SII only, so that you could balance the colours a bit more and get a bit more red into the image without it getting gritty. The image is already so promising that more exposure on all the channels, but especially SII would be time well spent.

I'm travelling at the moment so it will be at least another week before I can do any more. Then it's the new moon and I'll be wanting to do LRGB during that time. Just had a look in Stellarium, I might be able to get a couple hours on it each night early in July before it disappears. If not, there's always next year.

Originally Posted by Placidus

Only 15% vignetting! Oh to be so lucky. On our 2" filters, we're down 30% in the corners on a much smaller FOV.

I guess I can't complain then! I thought that 15% was pretty bad.

[RickS (Rick)]

Originally Posted by lazjen

Yeah, that was the first place I tried to do the plate solve, but like you I discovered it was down - so I thought to appeal to the wise ones out there for help.

I really should set it up locally, but convenience/laziness has won so far.

I also tried AnnotateImage, but it didn't give anything useful. I'll try tweaking things a bit to see if I can get something from it.

If you plate solve with ImageSolver you can load the image into Aladin and overlay it with a variety of catalogs. I find that a useful way to identify obscure objects.

[lazjen (Chris)]

Well, that was a rabbit hole.

I finally found it with a combo of DSS + Simbad in the Aladin program.

I think it is this: http://simbad.u-strasbg.fr/simbad/si...++69&NbIdent=1 (PN Hf 69)

Thanks for the software tip Rick - looks like a really useful tool.

[strongmanmike (Michael)]

Good going Chris, Mike has some good suggestions.

In this orientation it reminds me somehow of the Cloverfield monster

Mike

[DJT (David)]

Hi Chris

Nice image and FOV.
The PN is PN294.9. Doesn't come up much. I had same issue and only identified it through a googled instruction of how to find unidentified items using Maxim DL

[RickS (Rick)]

Originally Posted by lazjen

I think it is this: http://simbad.u-strasbg.fr/simbad/si...++69&NbIdent=1 (PN Hf 69)

Yep, looks like a match!

[lazjen (Chris)]

Originally Posted by strongmanmike

Good going Chris, Mike has some good suggestions.

In this orientation it reminds me somehow of the Cloverfield monster

Thanks Mike. I can't see it myself, but I struggle to see these things anyway. I certainly can't see a running chicken either.

I tried to roughly match the orientation in Stellarium, but I can see I'm at a different angle. At least for this FOV, it fits nice enough (almost - a bit further "right" would have been better.

Originally Posted by DJT

Nice image and FOV.
The PN is PN294.9. Doesn't come up much. I had same issue and only identified it through a googled instruction of how to find unidentified items using Maxim DL

Thanks David. That id matches one of the names for it listed on the Simbad page. It looks like there's 8 different names.

Originally Posted by RickS

Yep, looks like a match!

Multiple confirmations, that's good enough for me.

[Andy01 (Andy)]

Framing is very pleasing and well balanced, Bok globules are showing up well too.
Colours are always a subjective choice but this one seems overly dominated by green to me - easily remedied in PS with selective colour if you wanted to?
Certainly has promise and as Mike mentioned, more S2 will help as well

[lazjen (Chris)]

Originally Posted by Andy01

Framing is very pleasing and well balanced, Bok globules are showing up well too.
Colours are always a subjective choice but this one seems overly dominated by green to me - easily remedied in PS with selective colour if you wanted to?
Certainly has promise and as Mike mentioned, more S2 will help as well

Thanks Andy and you're definitely right about the green dominance. More S2 data would help, but I had a go at tweaking the colour calibration to see if I could improve it further:



Just the jpg version here. I'll upload a full uncompressed version at another time. It looks like an improvement to me - am I correct?

[lazjen (Chris)]

Another day, another roast, er, edit...

This one moves away from the green/blue scheme to a more gold/blue version using ColorMask related tweaks. I've also done a tighter crop on the image to "balance" things a bit more and remove more the the apparent spacing problems I've got from the top-left.



Lossless version is here: https://flic.kr/p/VJHTXv

[Andy01 (Andy)]

Now you're talkin' - imo a massive improvement aesthetically, now just add a bucketload of S2 & away you go!

[lazjen (Chris)]

Thanks Andy. I'll start on the S2 when I can.