Gourd: Nose to nose with a bottle-nose

[Placidus]

Just the NW corner of the Gourd Nebula (RCW 11 or Sh308) in Canis Major.

Normal observers will immediately recognize that the neck of the gourd is actually the profile of a dolphin (although sadly not a bottle-nosed dolphin, which would be just too convenient). The WR star is plausibly the dolphin's beady eye.

Mapping H-alpha to red, OIII to Green+Blue doesn't work for those of us who are colourblind, where red is invisible and blue-green looks grey, so we've rotated the palette slightly so H-alpha appears a warm orange, and OIII appears an inoffensive cerulean blue.

The full sized image (2.5 MB) is here (http://mikeberthonjones.smugmug.com/Category/Wolf-Rayet/i-sCmd7fP/0/O/0083%20Dolphin%27s%20Nose%20Orange% 20H-alpha%205hrs%2C%20Cyan%20OIII%204hr s.jpg)

For detail, we took 3 x 1hr H-alpha plus 4 x 1hr OIII, all unbinned, but the nebula is so faint in H-alpha that we added another 2x 1hr 2x2 binned subs in H-alpha.

The H-alpha is pushed strongly, and narrowband colours are arbitrary, so the central WR star looks orange. In "real life" it would be bright blue.

Please don't waste a lovely afternoon checking to see if some of the stars look funny where we messed up using a star-rounding tool (we did), or statistically analyzing to see if the background shows gritty colour noise (it does).

Instead, reward yourself with something special: have a look at the sharpness and detail of the minutely interwoven shock fronts. We believe (modestly, and in awe) that at 3.45 metres focal length and having some good seeing, we've been lucky enough to show much more detail than in Don Goldman's APOD 2009 (http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap090423.html) shot, which shows the entire Gourd.

Our shot is 36 min arc across, 0.55 sec arc per pixel. Hope you like it.

[RickS]

Love the smiley dolphin face, Mike & Trish :)

Some great detail there. Looking forward to the rest of the mosaic!

Cheers,
Rick.

[multiweb]

Superb details Mike. Really nice. I don't think you need a mosaic. Looks good as is. :thumbsup:

[Bassnut]

wow, that is very impressive indeed, fantastic detail and appropriate colour. Zoomed in is excellent, no need for a mosiac.

[Ryderscope]

Nicely done Mike. An enjoyable journey looking into the details of the whisps of nebulosity whilst imagining the different shapes that we can see.

[Placidus]

Thanks, Rick. The dolphin reminds us of Flipper. The mosaic might have to wait, as it takes a couple nights per panel and is already well past the meridian.



Thanks, Marc! We are delighted that a master of mosaics likes it as is.



Hi, Fred. We were super-pleased by the unexpected sharpness.



Thanks, Rodney. There's more than gourds and shock fronts up there.

We should love to know why it is so strong in OIII and so weak in H-alpha. That makes it different to say Hershel's Ring, or Thor's Helmet.

[gregbradley]

That's an awesome shot Mike. You show the reflective nature of it very clearly.

Greg.

[alistairsam]

That looks fantastic. lovely detail.

For me personally, the benchmark is Marco's image, but of course its a much wider fov.
http://www.glitteringlights.com/Images/Nebulae/i-BrmvbBj/A

do you have the acquisition and equipment details somewhere?

Cheers
Alistair

[prokyon]

Fantastic! So many details and colors are great too. Looks a bit scary, love it.

[Leonardo70]

Simply wonderful. congrats !!

All the best,
Leo

[Geoff45]

Very interesting stuff there M&T. The delicate tracery is amazingly beautiful. Not sure about it being a dolphin. It reminds me of some other animal which the aging brain cells can't quite bring to the surface.
Geoff

[Andy01]

Sharpless bubbles must be like London buses, there are none around then three arrive at once!

That's an awesome result, you've gotta be happy with that - well done!

[multiweb]

Really (http://www.astropic.net/astro/dolphin.gif)? :question:

[pluto]

That's a really nice image!
Well framed too :)

[Paul Haese]

Coool

[Placidus]

Thanks, Greg. It looks a bit like it is sculpted from ice.



Whoops. 3nM Astrodon filters. Aspen CG16M at -30C. PlaneWave 20" CDK. Mathis Instruments MI760 fork mount. Custom servo-motors. Auto-refocus between subs. All dome, camera, mount, and scope control electronics, firmware, software, and all image processing software (except final embedding of ICC profile) built or written by us.

Marco's image has lovely star colours.



Thank you !



Thanks, Leo, I'm delighted.



Thanks, Geoff. A dolphin with seal affiliations perhaps.



Must confess that it was the other two very fine and shiny buses that got us enthused. We plate solved your shot in order to work out where to point. Thank you!

[Placidus]

Thanks, Hugh.



Cheers, Paul.

[strongmanmike]

Been a few images of this lately :) and this is a nice new close up perspective with some great details at this FL...I noticed the dolphin in previous posts but it is very noticeable here :thumbsup:

More great stuff Mike and Trish

Mike

[astronobob]

Amaized ! Grouse Composition, Classic Photography :thumbsup: :thumbsup:

[Placidus]

Cheers, Mike! Glad that you had independently spotted the cetacean at play.



Thanks Bob. Glad you liked it.

[Peter Ward]

I'm pining for the Fjords here...you've left me wanting to see the whole enchilada!

....but at this sublime resolution. (Sorry, Marco gets my vote for the whole enchilada...so far...)

....you are capturing depth and detail that lesser aperture and amateur focal lengths are often found wanting.

Love your work! :thumbsup:

[Placidus]

Thanks, Peter. I'm tickled pink. The dolphin must be a Norwegian Blue.

[graham.hobart]

That's a fabulous shot. Deep Space dolphin indeed!
Thanks for the view.
Graz:thumbsup:

[Placidus]

Thanks, Graham, glad you like it.

[Ross G]

Amazing photo Mike.

Rich, delicate detail and I can actually see the dolphin!

Ross.

[Placidus]

Thanks Ross.