NGC 6334 - The Oceanarium

[naskies]

(yes, yes, it's better known as the Cat's Paw...)

Finally! After endless months of rain, the sky gods have finally cleared up the cloudy and rainy nights in Brisbane, so I have finally got my kit set up and working properly.

This is a ~ 40 x 30 arc min view of NGC 6334 in H-alpha: my deepest image ever, by quite a large margin :D The darkest areas of the image is still a tad noisy, so I'll try to add a few more hours if the weather holds up. Possibly a mosaic of the surrounding areas too.

Full resolution version here (http://itee.uq.edu.au/~davel/_temp/NGC6334-CatsPaw-Ha.jpg)

Details: stack of 20 out of 28 frames x 20 min (6.7 of 9.3 hours) with a GSO RC8, SBIG STF-8300M @ 2x2 binning (1.4''/px), Baader 7 nm Ha filter, SX AO guiding @ 10 Hz, on an EQ6.



PS following Mike's tradition of finding animals in nebulae, I see an oceanarium: a sunfish, seahorse, moray eel, shark's fin, and a crayfish! :rofl:

[tilbrook@rbe.ne]

Good to see you back on deck Dave!

Wow, just love the detail in your high res version!!
Good comparison for me with my unmodded DSLR image. Must admit I'm happy with how much I got.

Cheers,

Justin.

[RobF]

Great stuff Dave. Let's keep making sacrifies to the sky gods. The weather seems to be finally opening up! :prey:

[jase]

Fantastic work Dave. :thumbsup: Framing is tight but all the details are present. A pleasing view all up. My only point of contemplation is that I would have replaced the crayfish with a jellyfish.

[DavidTrap]

Nice work Dave,

The stars are nice and round, so the AO seems to be doing the trick.

DT

[strongmanmike]

Yep, that is definitely a jellyfish :P

Excellent Ha (aquarium) image Dave :thumbsup:

Mike

[naskies]

Thanks for the comments everyone! I managed to add another 3 hours worth of data last night and the stack is looking both more detailed and smoother. Addictive stuff! :lol:



Thanks Justin! After watching from the sidelines for the past few months in Brissie, it's nice to finally get such a great run of clear nights!

Yes, your rendition with an unmodded camera was quite spectacular :)



Thanks Rob! Indeed it has!



Thanks Jase! I agree about the framing. In hindsight, I would've framed it for a 2x2 mosaic - but now it looks like I'll need a 3x3 mosaic to get all the pertinent bits in a wide field.

I guess I've been outvoted 2-to-1 on the crayfish vs jellyfish issue :lol:



Thanks David! I followed your advice on tidier cabling, more repeatable set ups, more automation and plate solving from the computer, etc - seems to be working well.

The AO is nothing short of voodoo magic for my EQ6! With normal guiding, my EQ6 will randomly make sudden huge jumps (> 5 arc secs) between 1 sec guide exposures which results in noticeably eggy stars. With AO, the stars become pretty good at ~ 4 Hz, and great at 8+ Hz. The Lodestar does a great job with 0.05 sec exposures in 4x4 binning in the Milky Way area, but galaxy season may be trickier.

Hope you catch you at Leyburn soon!



Thanks Mike! Jellyfish it is, then :)

[DavidTrap]

Glad to hear your cables are under control.

Didn't know a lodestar would go that quick! Will have to have a good look at your sx ao - that one suits the QSI.

I plan to be at Leyburn on 3/4th May. I know the new moon is the following weekend but that one is a write off (10th wedding anniversary, Mother's Day, wife doing fun run, daughter has a birthday party to attend - actually that will be quite cool as it's at a miniature train place, wonder how many Dad's will do the drop off for that one!) The moon will rise at midnight, but that just means it's time to gather some narrowband data! ;)

DT

[multiweb]

Very nice indeed. A wealth of details and excellent contrast. Top shot. :thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup:

[naskies]

One thing to note is that the Maxim DL implementation of SX AO functionality is a little unreliable - lots of manual fiddling around needed - so I have my doubts about how well (or not!) it can be incorporated into automated imaging runs. I've signed up for the CCDAutoPilot trial so I'll give it a go.



Sounds great - I'll join you if I manage to get all my necessary study done and assignments submitted in time :)



Thanks Marc!!

[Ross G]

Great looking photo Dave.

So much detail.

Ross.