Another Modestly Deep Helix

[rat156]

Hi All,

Like Peter, I think that I'll be frustrated by weather. Anyway, here's one night's data, a lot of Ha (6 hours) and an hour of OIII.

Larger image here (http://www.astrobin.com/full/117993/0/)

Added another 7 and a bit hours Ha data on 4 Sep 14, image here (http://www.astrobin.com/full/117993/B/)

Share and Enjoy.

Cheers
Stuart

[pluto]

That's looking great for only one nights worth!
I'm looking forward to seeing how this develops with some more data :)

[Peter Ward]

Really nice core resolution :thumbsup::thumbsup:

(I always found the seeing better, for the decade I lived in Melbourne, compared to double that time in Emerald city :) )

[graham.hobart]

**** me thats good!

[Rex]

Top shot Stuart. I can only dream of taking a shot like this.

[marc4darkskies]

Looks great Stuart. It's difficult to bring out the fainter extents and I can see you've pushed it hard to reveal them. Nice work.

Marcus

[Paul Haese]

Funnily enough I am working on the same object and have a similar amount of time so far; but I don't have all the extensions. Doing 30 minute subs and wondering how long your subs are with this image? I am thinking of going to 40 minutes to tease out the outer extensions. I am running at f8

As to your image. I really like the detail, and in particular the core sharpness is quite nice. I think you could push your OIII a little to bring that out a bit more though.

[RickS]

Looks great, Stuart, especially for a relatively small amount of data.

Cheers,
Rick.

[Rod771]

Awesome result for one night! Well done Stuart! :thumbsup:

If only the clouds would leave Sydney for just one night!!! arrrrrrrrrggghhhh! :cloudy:

[dutch2]

Super shot, well done.:thumbsup:

[rat156]

Thanks Peter, I take it the emerald city is Sydney, not the Wizard of Oz. I'm not so good with pop culture references. Anyway, the seeing here is generally pretty rubbish, occasionally I get a good night, the night this was taken was average, I estimate about 3". Sometimes the plume from my neighbour's heater runs through the area I'm imaging, that's particularly bad.



Rex, it's not about dreaming, it's about application and the right gear. Even with modest gear this is an achievable image for most imagers. Work on your skills, patience and practice. I think I have at least three sets of images of the Helix, I'll try to dig the others out so you can see the progression.



Yeah Marcus, I had to include some noise for Mike...



These were 15 minute subs at f/3.6 Paul. You know your system better than me, but I'm thinking you won't gain much from longer subs. I find that my focus isn't stable enough to do much more than 15 minutes subs at the beginning of the evening, so I just stick with that. I have experimented with longer subs but have found that in the end it hasn't made a noticeable difference.

The OIII is strange with this object as there is next to no detail in it anyway, see attached image. There are some striations in the OIII data, but in that part of the nebula the Ha dominates the luminance which is why I stopped acquiring the OIII and concentrated on the Ha. I may add some more to it later.

Between yourself, Peter and my images we'll have a nice set of comparison images between various scope designs and imaging workflows. We should also combine all the data to produce a super mega image!

Cheers
Stu

[David Fitz-Henr]

Very nice Stuart; as others have said, a great result for just one night's imaging :thumbsup:

[gregbradley]

Surprisingly deep for the exposure time. Looks good.

Greg.

[Octane]

That looks absolutely wonderful. The resolution in the core is astonishing!

H

[Shiraz]

:thumbsup: impressive deep image with good detail Stuart.

[strongmanmike]

Viva la streeeetch!! ;) :thumbsup:

Very cool Stu

These fast Newts can go deep quick, I got THIS (http://www.pbase.com/strongmanmike2002/image/136114176/original) in just 2hrs from heavily light polluted Newie, a widearse 12nm Ha filter and using so unconventional 5min exposures :eyepop: with mine (bit slower at F3.8) and crap seeing

With better seeing here now, maybe I should hammer it too and we could indeed combine all the collected data in an effort to dethrone Rolf's 120hrs Cen A :P :lol:

Mike

[Ihsahakat]

That is a spectacular image.

[BruceG]

Stunning capture and beautifully processed.

[Peter Ward]

Picked it in one. :thumbsup:

It's the title of one of David Williamson's (who also wrote Don's Party) satirical plays about a family who moved from Melbourne to Sydney.

Wonderful Australia humor.

[rat156]

Now two nights worth of data, another 7ish hours of Ha added.

Cheers
Stu

[marco]

Very nice result Stuart, you got excellent resolution and dig up quite well the faint halo :thumbsup:

Clear skies
Marco

[Ross G]

A beautiful photo Stuart.

Amazing detail!

Ross.

[Stevec35]

Nicely done Stuart. I just started getting some data for it myself but the recent helix standard is so high I don't think mine is going to amount to much.

Cheers

Steve