Overlooked but beautiful planetary in Hydra

[strongmanmike]

Well, I fiiiiiinally got to try out my new set of latest design 6nm HaOIIISII Astronomik filters :cool: ...it took some time because I discovered I also needed to get the full LRGB set to match as the new design filters are thicker than the previous range and the SX filterwheel carousel can only secure filters if they are all the same thickness :doh:, the new design has the 1mm thick filters sitting in a 3mm thick un-threaded mounting ring.

The narrower band width was quite noticeable with higher contrast and smaller stars, to be expected I guess but no halos were noticeable either plus the new clean filters means I don't really need flats again (I took'em but tried with and without and no difference :))

Peeerfect weather, ie no moon (until the wee hours) clear, cold and crisp (-4C when I left at 6am) and above average seeing, all night :thumbsup:, went at it from 5pm to 6am including trying out my new 17.3mm Delos eyepiece in the 12" Dob while the AG12 chugged away....beeeeautiful :thumbsup:

Anyway.....

This is a very little known (reasonably faint and small I guess..?) planetary nebula in Hydra, in fact I could only find one other (red light) photo of her on the net from the DSS :shrug:

Here are a few of her stats:
Name: K1-22 (or PN G283.6+25.3)
Size on sky: 3 arc min
Magnitude: 13.6
Distance: 4300 Ltyrs
Diameter: 4 Ltyrs
Temp of central star: 115 000K

K1-22 (http://www.pbase.com/strongmanmike2002/image/160405558/original) (close up)

K1-22 (http://www.pbase.com/strongmanmike2002/image/160405560/original) (Full Frame)

I got well into another NB image too, of a much brighter and larger object, so I can test out the SII filter as well :)

[Slawomir]

Very nice...I had no idea that Halpha is useful with planetary nebula. Glad to hear that new Astronomiks performed well.

-4C...beautiful, reminds me of spring temperatures in Poland...

[gregbradley]

Fantastic Mike. I like that a lot.

Greg.

[multiweb]

That's an interesting bubble. Never seen this one before. :thumbsup:

[DJScotty]

That's a very nice image Mike.
I am also VEEEEERY jealous...
The amount of imaging time you had in that one night equates to what I have had since about December!:mad2: (Hence why there are so many reprocesses of Carina!)
So, apart from the obvious (;)), there are some benefits to living in the ACT!

[SpaceNoob]

Thats a top image Mike, those filters look to be the goods. Pinpoint stars!

[IanP]

Did you secretly photographed a cosmic breast implant somewhere out-there? On SALE :question:
Great stuff Mike :thumbsup:, although a little bit “noisy” on my screen ..

[Stevec35]

Haven't seen that one before Mike. A really nice image - pinpoint stars, nice detail in the planetary and attractive composition with the two stars on the left.

Cheers

Steve

[Tony_]

Beautiful image Mike.
I like PNs but it's a pity they aren't a bit bigger. Some of the small ones have amazing shapes and colours.

Tony.

[TR]

Hey Mike. Nice colours in the stars. It kind of looks like a bit of plastic hanging out in space doesn't it. Nice photo.

Terry

[Joshua Bunn]

I really like that rendition Mike, love the star colour too!



Gotta love the astrophotographer life that we have ... :thumbsup: ...:screwy: haha

[RickS]

A new one to me, too Mike. I like the subtle colouring.

[Camelopardalis]

Beautiful Mike :thumbsup: looks like something out of a biology book!

[DJT]

Nicely done Mike. Composition is great and it's an interesting object.:thumbsup:

[strongmanmike]

Thanks so much for all the positive comments guys, she is a little beauty huh? :thumbsup:

For me the real attraction in this game is the whole package ie the trip out, the conditions, the sky, the visual observing and the imaging, the full experience. Having the observatory is really good though as I definitely don't miss the setup and pull down :scared:

Sometimes I do wish I had a fully automated system that I could control from home :prey:...then others, I am glad I get the full sky experience complete with visual treats through the dob and hot cuppa's sitting looking up at the Milky Way while the scope does its thing :)...bit like self sufficient tent camping with open fire just behind a remote beach, compared to staying in a 5 star hotel down the road at Surfers (not that 5 star Hotels at Surfers Paradise are bad or anything :question:)....well sorta like that :question: :lol:

Cheers again

Mike

[Rex]

Beautiful shot Mike. Man I wish I had the time to pursue this hobby the way you do. Great object, and composition. Nicely processed as usual. Overall a very pleasing view. I think the story about your nights under the stars make it even better. Oh to dream......

[Placidus]

Delicious. No idea it was there. Nice white dwarf in the centre, and thin, pretty, shell. Very fine.

[Rod771]

Yes, I was thinking before I read this post, that it sounded like a great night overall. Getting out there amongst it is where the fun is. Although, the set up and pull down gig is becoming a real ball and chain, especially when contemplating a run on a work night. :rolleyes:

Love the image, Mike! Nice result.:thumbsup:

[strongmanmike]

Cheers fella's :thumbsup:... and it's nice to be able to share some of the unique nuances of our crazy pursuit...get's lonely sometimes :sadeyes:....:lol:

Mike

[Retrograde]

Nice work taking an object that many of us were unaware of and making it look so amazing.

[Bill.davey]

Beautiful image. I love PN's.
Astrodon has an image of this which was an APOD on 6 May 2010 for comparison.
Bill

[strongmanmike]

Cheers mate :)



Cheers for that Bill, clearly my search didn't include the right words :doh: even a search using "Southern Owl Nebula" only shows up Dons image...but a nice surprise to realise that mine has come out so well, thanks :D especially considering I used a super fast F3.8 12" Newt at just 1120mm FL, compared to Don's (http://astrodonimaging.com/gallery/north-south-owls/) 14.5" RCOS at 3000mm FL :D...bah! who needs long focal length ;) and bodes well regarding the quality of the new line of 6nm Astronomik filters too I guess? :)

Mike

[Phil Hart]

You have certainly done it justice. A nice little (but hardly easy) image.

Nothing beats a long cold dark winter night. There are only so many people who can appreciate the sincerity of that comment and most of them are here on IIS! :lol:

Phil

[marc4darkskies]

That's something a bit different and interesting! Beautiful Mike!

Cheers, Marcus

[Maurice]

Nice job with some great framing on this one.. love it.

cheers
Maurice

[Shiraz]

outstanding image Mike - unusual object, so thanks for letting us have a look.

[jase]

Excellent Mike, not only because its a cool looking object but also that fact that I'm not seeing another NGC5128, M16, NGC6188, or blah blah mainstream from you. Out of interest, how long were your subs on this target as I'm wondering if there is any faint shell or halo present on this PN. Enjoyed the view. Thanks.

[strongmanmike]

Thanks Phil, yep cold and dark, the way it should be :D



Thanks Marcus, another quickie from me, I'm loving it, hope to image the whole sky in no time :thumbsup: :lol:



Hi Maurice, nice to see you in the dark forum and thanks so much :D



On ya Ray and you are very welcome :thumbsup:



Oh don't worry, some of those boring beauties are sure to raise there lovely heads again...and again...I have a whole new set of narrowband filters :D

I'm a simple un-automated amateur :sad: so I only used 10min subs for the Ha and OIII and 5min for RGB :P...all that is necessary with my scope, camera and conditions, just ask Ray ;). I did wonder about an outer halo after the fact, this was just a test image for the new filters while I waited for one of those boring girls you mentioned, to rise :lol:

Mike

[cometcatcher]

Beautiful Mike. Love it. :)

Mmm, 3 arc minutes. Too small for me.

[Fabiomax]

Just 3 arcmin size?wow, really great details for this planetary nebula! For me i see this nebula for the first time, great job!
Cheers,
Fabiomax

[topheart]

Mike,
I like this planetary....might give it a go!

Thanks,
Tim

[strongmanmike]

Cheers Kevin and Fabiomax, Oh come'on Kev, give it a shot :thumbsup:



Great Tim, you have a similar scope to me even so would be interesting to see what you can get, I didn't go very long at all as it was just a first light test image so I may have missed some faint outer halo if one is present. I used no Lum and only a small amount of RGB to colour the stars so a good wack of those could get you some more distant galaxies in the frame too and they are there, might look really nice :thumbsup:

Mike

[astronobob]

Amazing Image Mike, check them subtle details within - you'd be proud of that one huh, Ive never seen anything much quite like that before !
Good onya for finding such a good target and showing how them mighty filters work, extraordinary stuff chief

Hippy Bob :cool3:

[strongmanmike]

Thanks Bob, t'was just a short test image for the new filters and while there was plenty of Ha and OIII, there was no SII in this little bugger, so I am in the middle of collecting a full SIIHaOIII on a larger target :)

Catchya :D

Mike

[strongmanmike]

Well fancy that...ESO just recently released a beaut image (http://www.eso.org/public/news/eso1532/)(with a nice detailed write up) of this very rarely imaged planetary nebula in Hydra. There was only one other (http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap100506.html)reasonable image to compare with at the time so it was nice to finally get a high quality comparison to see how my result faired. Seems my colour (and apart from the expected point source limiting magnitude difference) along with the details match quite closely - cool :)

Mike

[tilbrook@rbe.ne]

Impressive in your face close up Mike!:thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup:

The amount of subtle detail is surprising, love it.:)

Cheers,

Justin.

[Atmos]

You've done a very nice job comparing the two, considering the equipment price difference :P

[Stevec35]

Yours is certainly a top image Mike and just shows how good amateur equipment is these days. I must admit that some of the ESO images just don't measure up in my view although this is one of the better ones. Frankly I think that amateurs are better at doing pretty pictures.

[Andy01]

Lovely image of a rare target, well done :)

Would you mind please telling me (and all of us) how/where do you go to research and seek out these rare and exotic targets?

Cheers

Andy

[Atmos]

I have a feeling that a lot of this comes down to the fact that they don't dedicate anywhere near the same amount of exposure time onto each individual target. I mean, Mike put like 13 hours into that image, ESO cannot afford to dedicate that amount of observation time onto a single target such as this.

[strongmanmike]

Cheers for having a look guys :thumbsup:



Nothing systematic or anything Andy, just a long time in the game, wide interest, internet browsing and surfing my planetarium software star charts from time to time :)



Actually there was less than 4hrs of exposure in this one Colin :)

[Atmos]

My bad, here I am underselling your equipment! Assumed you spent the night on this one, 5pm-6am :)

[rustigsmed]

nice one Mike, I love a good PN too bad they are mostly tiny.
i'm with you on enjoying the skies on the dob while the imaging rig chugs away.

Cheers

[bkm2304]

Mike,

Does she have a "common" name? If not, how about, The Blueberry Nebula. It looks just like the ones that I had on my breakfast this morning!;):P:D:):)

Richard

[strongmanmike]

The Southern Owl :)...but I think "Breast Implant" was suggested...:question:

[marco]

Duh! I supposed to have already commented this one but apparently not! :screwy:

Great target Mike and excellent rendition, when (when?:prey:) I will be able to get a larger scope this will definitely be in my to do list.. inspiring!

Cheers
Marco

[strongmanmike]

Anything in mind..? I' thinking you should go straight to the top and join the Chart32 team :thumbsup:

Mike