Horse close and personal, with 4 Herbig-Haro objects

[Placidus]

Horsehead, bright nebula NGC 2023, and (at least three, probably four) Herbig-Haro objects (circled). H-alpha, 6 x 1hr subs. Aspen 16M on 20" PlaneWave CDK on MI-750 fork. Field 36 min arc, North on the left.

A Herbig-Haro object is formed where a polar jet from a young star slams into pre-existing material producing a mushroom cap on a stalk. These four are too distant to see any detail. Easier examples are seen in the Trifid nebula and in Master Yoda's Walking Stick in Corona Australis.

Clearly a sea-horse, emerging proudly from the salty spume. Observe the small rhino horn on the horse's nose. As well as an obvious set of reins, bits of kelp are hanging from the horse's mouth. Tastes vary. The horse is observing a Loch-Ness style sea-serpent, riding the breaker to the horse's left.

Edit:

CORRECT LINK TO FULL SIZE IMAGE HERE (http://www.mikeberthonjones.smugmug.com/Category/Dark-nebulae/i-9DrWKGH/0/O/0077%20Horsehead%20with%20Herbig-Haro%20objects.jpg)

[RickS]

Great level of detail there, Mike, especially if you dig around and find the "O" original size image. I'd never noticed the HH objects in that field before.

Cheers,
Rick.

[gaa_ian]

Delightful image and great info on the Herbig-Haro objects !

[suma126]

I like it very cool image :thumbsup:

[Placidus]

Thanks much, Rick. The HH's were discovered by David Malin at AAT. My postulated 4th one was burned out on his original film image.


THIS IS THE LINK TO THE FULL SIZE IMAGE (http://www.mikeberthonjones.smugmug.com/Category/Dark-nebulae/i-9DrWKGH/0/O/0077%20Horsehead%20with%20Herbig-Haro%20objects.jpg)

[Placidus]

Thanks Ian :)



Thanks Shane, glad you like it.

[Bassnut]

Incredible detail Mike, the subtle contrast in the base of the horse (oft not seen) and streamers are excellent. The tiny stars at that FL are impressive, focus is excellent.

[Rod771]

Awesome detail Mike! Excellent. :thumbsup:

[Peter Ward]

The stars look a tad elongated ( hard to avoid at that FL...)

In any event ...Delightful image scale with tight stellar footprints. Nice one :thumbsup:

[multiweb]

Superb shot Mike. Mega image scale, almost hubblelesque. :thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup:

[Placidus]

Thanks, Fred. Glad you like it.



Cheers, Rod!



Thanks, Peter, Suspect that our polar axis is getting a bit stiff and grabby. Truly horrifying thought as taking it all apart is not easy.



Yippee! Thanks, Marc.

[gregbradley]

Very nice Mike. Good to see the 20 inch pumping out the goods. A few dark rings from Decon around some stars. You can do a few versions with decon and then blend them with one without allowing the non decon stars to show through.

Stars can be rounded slightly in Photoshop or StarTools.

Greg.

[Bassnut]

The slightly out of round stars are no big deal, being a bit picky there, easy to fix, fixed here (http://fredsastro.smugmug.com/Temp/n-CvvjD/i-v46bH9R/A).

[Placidus]

Thanks, Greg. I write all my own image processing software. The decon does a trade-off between some residual panda eyes and better dust lanes. I have a "mask and blend" similar to what you suggest, to reduce the panda eyes, but it's not quite there yet.



Thanks Fred. That's a good after-the-event fix. The elongation is east-west. I've noticed that if I release the polar axis clutch, the bearings feel alarmingly stiff. I've written to Mathis Instruments asking what to do next, but it's Christmas and no answer yet. I suspect that the very stiff polar axis is messing up the tracking.

[marc4darkskies]

Outstanding scale & detail there Mike! Very nice indeed. I bet you could tease out more signal in the darker portions though.

Cheers, Marcus

[AstroJason]

Nice image there Mike, loving the detail you have captured. Still blown away by the fact that you are able to get 1 hour subs! Just outstanding!

[Placidus]

Thanks muchly, Marcus. There is a bit more to tease out but it gets a bit gritty.



Cheers, Jason!

Nice weather for ducks here. Nothing more this side of Christmas except for green grass and full dams. :)

[Shiraz]

wonderful image Mike - excellent resolution to resolve the HH objects :thumbsup:

[Ryderscope]

There is so much detail in that image Mike. Beautiful work.

[Placidus]

Thanks, Ray, encouraging.



Thanks, Rodney, appreciated.

[stevous67]

I'll see your 20" with my 12" CDK! :lol:

Interesting to compare for me. Yours is lovely and smooth, but mine with only 5 x 20min subs, is noisy. It was taken in Melbourne the previous night mostly through clouds. :-(

https://farm9.staticflickr.com/8669/16088968236_d677875a7b_o.jpg

Nice work Mike. :thumbsup:

Steve

[lazjen]

Nice image and thanks for the extra info as well - very interesting.

[John K]

That's a great image and the reality of it kick in when you look at the full resolution image - this appears very much like the photo from the 200" Palomar telescope which appears in Burnham's Celestial Guidebook.

Have just looked at your photo album - some great photos there taken with your 20"

[Placidus]

Thanks Steve. You got three of the four HH's in that short time. A very nice shot. You must be pleased.



Thanks Chris. Cheers!



Thanks John, that's very kind. I like your "Go away clouds" logo. The monsoon seems to have truly reached us here at Placidus. The dams are full and the grass is green, but no more photography.

[strongmanmike]

Can I have your telescope please Mike? :)

Up close it has a few artifacts but sheesh very few images don't :), a great narrow field Ha Horsey Mike :thumbsup:

Mike

[TR]

Hi Mike

It’s really interesting to compare how different sized instruments handle the same object. This was taken on December 26th and 27th from inner Melbourne suburbs with a 10” RC, STL-11000. A little more data would always be nice so I can stretch the #@!! out of it. Sadly, Melbourne’s weather has not been kind to imagers. Yes, I know – that crazy bright star has played havoc with the image. It’s just on the edge, but that is where the guide star god has led me. :shrug:

https://farm9.staticflickr.com/8668/15940070809_b51e854652_o.jpg

Thanks for sharing Mike, and nice work.

Terry

[Placidus]

Thanks, Superman! I'm going to have to work on those decon haloes. Know how. Just getting off me bum and writing the code.



Hi, Terry,

Educational. I downloaded and registered your image to mine and did a blink test. Very nice work! Your stars are virtually identical to mine (ignoring my decon haloes), and the brighter parts of the nebulosity are very similar. On a super-bright object, at sea level in ordinary seeing (with no adaptive optics, no video lucky imaging) a 6" refractor would out-perform the 20". The big scope and dark site come into their own on the ridiculously faint stuff, such as the faintest nebulosity in the bottom half of the image, which is either gritty, or just not there at all, in an equivalent exposure from a small instrument in the suburbs.

Cheers, Mike.

[Ross G]

What an amazing monochrome Horse Head photo Mike.

Great detail, so sharp and beautiful tones.

Love it!

Ross.

[Regulus]

I can't believe I missed this when you first posted. Fantastic image Mike.

Trevor

[Placidus]

Cheers, Ross, my tail is wagging!



Thanks Trevor, very kind.

Wish this area had more OIII or SII in it. Might have to consider something evil like Halpha-RGB.