3918, we're going to hit it

[raymo]

You will need to downsize or centre pics 2 and 3.
raymo

[Atmos (Colin)]

I think I saw this with a 5" at a dark site one night and this is a fairly accurate expression of what it looked like in the EP. Pic 2 that is, definitely not #3!

[sil (Steve)]

it is a beautiful blue

[speach (Simon)]

Pic 3 the old blue golf ball trick!

[LewisM]

I thought the Green Lanterns were friendly with Earth.

[raymo]

I was hoping for some mildly amused responses, but pic 3 was actually an
attempt to see if I could wring any detail out of 3918 with my 1000mm f/l scope, which obviously was too short, so I used an 8mm EP +barlow,
and cropped it hugely, so goodness knows what f/l the image ended
up being. It does actually show signs of some of the details visible in the Hubble version.
raymo

[sil (Steve)]

details? or imagination? I've spent weeks on data processing chasing what was probably floaters in my eyeball

[raymo]

If you google 3918, and peruse the various images, you can make out the
lattice like structure that my image displays, although not the
wings [ansae] of course, need much longer subs to show them.
At this magnification I was surprised that I got anything other than
a blob.
raymo