The Giant Space Slug in Puppis

[strongmanmike]

Looking like a giant Exogorth or Space Slug from The Empire Strikes Back leaping out of an asteroid to devour the Millennium Falcon, this object is more commonly known as a "cometary globule" hence its more familiar name of CG4 and it is composed of dust and inonised gas. The Milenium Falcon here is in fact the distant galaxy ESO 257-19 and is many millions of light years further away.

It is also referred to as the Hand of God sometimes and I recon it's a very cool lookin object :thumbsup:

Giant Space Slug (http://www.pbase.com/strongmanmike2002/image/158851962/original)

Full Frame (http://www.pbase.com/strongmanmike2002/image/158851930/original)

Galaxy ESO257-19 (http://www.pbase.com/strongmanmike2002/image/158904178/original)

Mike
I'm sure there are a few other shapes in there too.....:P like the sand worms from Arrakis in Dune and the Doomsday Machine from Star Trek

[Leonardo70]

First !!! Wonderful Mike !!!!

All the best,
Leo

[strongmanmike]

:lol: Grazie Leo :)

[cometcatcher]

Nice one Mike. It looks like it's about to eat that galaxy.

[alpal]

Hi Mike,
nice result especially that you had poor seeing.
Those space creatures keep on showing themselves!

cheers
Allan

[TR]

I will have you’re having :lol: That’s a freaky shot. Great reference.

Terry

[Placidus]

Utterly superb, Mike. Wonderful inspiring shot.

[RickS]

Great image, Mike. Are you sure it's not a Dune sandworm?

Cheers,
Rick.

[Ross G]

Wow!

What an amazing photo Mike.

Technically excellent, but the composition and content so stimulates the imagination.

A definite billboard add for the next great Sci Fi movie.


Ross.

[Andy01]

Maybe Rick, but I think Mike's got the "Doomsday Machine" from Star Trek TOS! Nice work Mike, beam me up :)

Andy

[multiweb]

Cool shot! Looks like one of those spice worms from Dune. :thumbsup:

[Stevec35]

Nice one Mike. You got some pretty good resolution there. Must try this one myself some day.

Cheers

Steve

[gregbradley]

Great image Mike. The galaxy came up nicely as well. That's a pretty small galaxy so excellent resolution there.

Greg.

[strongmanmike]

Thanks for the responses guys, glad you all seem to have enjoyed the view..seeing creatures and other stuff in nebulae is automatic for me and has become a fetish of mine I think :question: :lol: Glad the asteroid worm is obvious to most too...yes didn't think of the Dune worms :)

Although it did vary somewhat, the seeing was rather ordinary both nights so once again while not toooo bad, the level of detail is annoyingly hinting at what could have been :doh:

Mike

[Rod771]

Nice depth and perspective! Very cool shot Mike. :thumbsup:

[Paul Haese]

Looks good Mike. Nice detail in the galaxy dust lanes. An interesting target for sure. Have you considered ramping up the blue a little. The blue stars seem a little muted to me. Nice image all the same.

[rustigsmed]

nice one Mike, probably only a few billion times bigger than the star wars space slug.
I think it only looks like a hand (hand of God) when viewed in xray? - in which case it more likely the hand of God oversized star wars slug puppet sock ...

[strongmanmike]

Thanks again guys :thumbsup:

Yep!.. see the puppet sock :D

Hmmm Paulie..I thought I was a nasty bully :poke: deserving of severe moderation and you'd never speak to me again :sadeyes: :sad: :lol:...anyway, all good....As for the blue stars..? Although I never look at other renditions before doing my own processing, a quick peruse of other images of this region seems to suggest that blue in stars, or in the rest of the field for that matter, isn't too strong in the area..? maybe lots of dust? Many renditions seem to be strong in magenta too...but thanks for the suggestion though :)

Mike

[SkyViking]

Great work Mike :thumbsup: That's a wonderful image of this classic cometary globule - one that is not often imaged. The colours are nice and vibrant too!
There are quite a few of these interesting globule structures around Puppis.

[strongmanmike]

Thanks Rolfie :thumbsup: I've always loved this dusty structure, I last imaged it back in 2008 with the Starfire and FLI 11002... and APOD seemed to like that rendition :)

This latest version is higher res but a smaller field of view

Mike

[marc4darkskies]

Just lovely Mike! A rather haunting image too. Quite compelling!

I reckon this version is better than your 2008 rendition! Higher res & better colour. I prefer the crop because it's (closer to??) full res. You don't tell us what scaling you've applied any more :( but guessing the full frame is 60%? Anyway, the stars look nice & tight in the cropped version too so you're seeing couldn't have been that bad(?)

Cheers, Marcus

[strongmanmike]

Cheers Marcus glad you liked it :D... ti's not perfect, bit of background colour noise and not as crisp looking as I'd like but I'll take it given the low frequency of clear usable nights lately... but that's not the main point of the image in the end, the main subject, as you say, is just so compelling that as long as the image is half decent it looks pretty amazing :thumbsup:

The full frame is indeed 60% while the crop is 80% :scared3:..sorry...just (another) thing I have :rolleyes: :lol:

Mike

[Geoff45]

Scary! So many objects, so little time to image them. Nicely done Mike.
Geoff

[astronobob]

Keool - check it out, space slug havin brekky, - Grouse going Mike , top photography and the Puppet,

[Slawomir]

In short - a great image!

[Bassnut]

Very smick Mike, love the full frame with the bonus galaxy at the top. Well processed.

[atalas]

Quite stunning Mike!well done.

[strongmanmike]

Cheers Bob, Slaw, Fred and big Louie for the positive feedback, really glad to hear it was enjoyed...Bob :question: what language are you speaking man :face: :lol: good Straya day speak me recons, keep it up, love it :)

Mike

[tilbrook@rbe.ne]

Love the slug Mike!:thumbsup:

Can't say I've seen this before, might try myself.

What wave length is it most visible in?
Hopefully not too much HA.

Cheers,

Justin.

[strongmanmike]

Cheers Justin, gotta love the slugs mug :D

Some brighter nebs can look better and more detailed with Ha added but although there is some, the Ha is a reasonably weak for this object, so in this case I did a straight LRGB :)

Mike

[dvj]

About all I can say....

[strongmanmike]

Wow, is that a real still from an episode..?? If so, maybe they got inspiration from CG4 :thumbsup:

Mike

[dvj]

Matt Decker (http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0934750/?ref_=tt_trv_qu): [distraught] They say there's no devil, Jim, but there is, right out of Hell. I saw it!
Capt. Kirk (http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000638/?ref_=tt_trv_qu): Matt, where's your crew?
Matt Decker (http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0934750/?ref_=tt_trv_qu): On the third planet.
Capt. Kirk (http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000638/?ref_=tt_trv_qu): There IS no third planet!
Matt Decker (http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0934750/?ref_=tt_trv_qu): [anguished] Don't you think I know that? There was, but not anymore! They called me; they BEGGED me for help, four hundred of them! I couldn't... I-I couldn't...

[strongmanmike]

Well, bugger me.... is that from an original 60's episode?

[dvj]

Yes indeed. One of the best from the series. "The Doomsday Machine"

[strongmanmike]

Crazy stuff, I added it to my growing looks-like list :D...yeah, yeah, ok I have a problem :nerd: