Beware the....CRAW!

[RobF]

I was intrigued by the dark clouds in this area after seeing some more of John's amazing mosaic (http://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/showthread.php?t=108240) exploits in Sagittarius, so I took the opportunity to explore this area for a few hours when visiting a dark sky site recently. The dust clouds haven't contrasted as well as I'd hoped against overwhelming star field, but its a bit out of the ordinary, so hope people find some interest. I don't think I'll get time to play with the processing for a while, so putting it up as is.

The CRAW (not the Claw you idiot!) is really B84, and the glob is NGC 6440. Planetary neb NGC 6445 is the purple smudge near the blue star far left.

FSQ106 @F3.7 (x0.73 reducer) and QHY9
LRGB 105:100:80:70 mins (mixture of 5 and 10min subs)
Crop, full frame and additional close in crop shown

Larger image here (https://picasaweb.google.com/UserRobF/RecentWork#5897861109782127410)
Full frame FOV about 120 x 160 arcmin @ 2.88 arcsecs/px

[RickS]

Nice one, Rob! I had a go at part of the Pipe Nebula at Astrofest last year and found it difficult to do anything exciting with it. Perhaps that's just my limited processing skills...

[strongmanmike]

Excellent Rob! Love it...now I will have to put the big ProLine back on to get this myself :question: :doh: :lol:

Mike

[RobF]

Thanks Rick. I think I got a bit over confident after processing the Corona Australis region where there are a lot less stars to contend with. I'm happy how the NEQ6 tracked through much of this, but looking at the flat stars zoomed in I wished I'd programmed some shorter exposures ala Rick to get smoother star profiles. Can understand how the pipe area could be a challenge now.



Nooooo - surely you're not attacking the new rig that soon Mike. Seems to be working too well. Glad you liked - Maxwell Smart has a LOT to answer for :lol:

[dvj]

Lovely work Rob! Now I know what color would look like. BTW, I have expanded the mosaic now to a full 60 segments on this area. Bit of a task to get it all downloaded and processed at the moment before I can post the update.

cheers,

jg

[dvj]

Mike, you should use the new high res camera setup on this. I'd like to see how it compares to the FSQ shots.

[naskies]

Nice work, Rob! Such a magical area of the Milky Way. Glad to see you collected some good data last week.

[troypiggo]

:lol: :lol: :lol:

Cool shots and target :)

[SkyViking]

Nice find and excellent images, well done!

[Paul Haese]

I like the wider field of view. So many stars in that regions it seems like there is no space at all.

[marc4darkskies]

Nice find and interesting image Rob ... errr, I'm mean Craw. :thumbsup:

Cheers, Marcus

[Ross G]

Great capture Rob.

Amazing detail and contrast.


Ross.

[Elio]

Stunning image, and hard to process...I love dark nebula!

[RobF]

Thanks John - inspiring and educational - hats off for what you're achieving!



Why not! Would be interesting to see closer what it looks like....



Thanks Dave - had hoped for more, but happy to have got some fresh air with the kids :)



Thanks Troy - Have to look out for that Kaos....



Cheers Rolf :D



thanks Paul - would love to have a wider field camera, but happy with what I can do with the current rig. Thought some zooms might higllight the feature that originally captured my attention. Made sense to keep the reducer in on the two nights while also chasing other widefield shots in Virgo.



thanks Marcus! :)





thanks for checking it out Ross and Elio! :)

[mental4astro]

Rob, you are a man after my heart... :lol:

I love chasing dark nebulae, and this image of yours led me to find a concise list of "The Best of Barnard's Dark Nebulae" (http://www.saguaroastro.org/content/Best-of-Barnards-Dark-Nebulae.htm).

I hope to be able to chase the CRAW this season. I've at least set the challenge out in the Observation and Visual forum's Challenge thread.

Oh, lovely, lovely image, Rob. I am very impressed with it, despite your saying it's not processed enough. :)

[RobF]

Thanks Alexander - have just been catching up on the thread - sounds like a great visual challenge. That's a great list of Barnard objects too I'll have to check out.

It'd be great if others found some interest in this "little bit out of the way" object and other dark nebs.

[jase]

Mesmerising FoV, Rob! The rifts of dark nebulosity and dust look uber cool. You've managed the star field well in processing. Working the highlights of green and red channels will deliver the rich golden hues so notorious of this region. Impressive work. More please.

[RobF]

Thanks for comment Jase. I'll have to check out the colour tweak suggestion - I just wasn't too sure where to go next. Glad you found of interest. :)

Rob