IC 5148 The Cosmic Atom - with ultra faint outer OIII halo

[strongmanmike]

This little planetary nebula is located in the constellation Grus (The Crane). The bright central ring is quite small at about 2.3 arc min in size while the ultra faint and rarely captured outer OIII halo extends out to about 6 arc min in diameter.

The outer halo is very elusive and a quick look around on the net confirms this but I think I got it all...?. The new narrower band pass 6nm Astronomiks have helped here but I recon 3nm may have helped delineate more structure in the faint halo, still, I'm happy with the three nights of imaging which once again took place in quite good conditions... I have been quite lucky in this department in recent times :prey2:, with most nights at least average seeing but many above average to good :thumbsup:

Hope you like....The Cosmic Atom (http://www.pbase.com/strongmanmike2002/image/161295601/original)

[batema]

Amazing looking object and beautiful colours.

[Fabiomax]

I follow all your works because everithing you shootis a masterpiece! The outer halo has to be incredibly weak!
Cheers,
Fabiomax

[troypiggo]

Another beautiful little planetary. Nice!

[Placidus]

:eyepop:

Mike, that's awesome.

The faint outer halo, clean and grit-free, looks like a dragon-serpent wrapped protectively round its brilliant opal egg. The opal itself is unbelievably sharp.

Far out!

[gregbradley]

Super image Mike. I did a test image of that one myself last night. The inner section is quite bright but I imagine that outer halo is super faint.

Greg.

[Paul Haese]

Nice detail Mike and the colour is great too.

[Andy01]

Well you don't see that everyday! :eyepop:
Another cracker image Mike :thumbsup:

[marc4darkskies]

Excellent Mike!

[RickS]

Nicely done, Mike! The only other image I have seen that shows so much of the halo is the one by Don Goldman (who had the slight advantage of a CDK20.)

I have a lot of hours on this target from last year. I was trying to improve on Don's Oiii by collecting a lot more data with my puny 300mm scope but didn't really succeed. I was battling read noise all the way. I should get around to processing it, I suppose...

Cheers,
Rick.

[strongmanmike]

Thanks heaps guys :) glad you all found it intriguing :thumbsup:

Yes, Don's image is great :eyepop:and yep aperture rules here but I recon the fast optics of the AG12 has allowed me to do an ok job considering the difference in site and equipment? I think my handling of the main ring holds up more than well :shrug: but and apart from the bigger aperture, I think the 3nm OIII filter Don used was handy too as we both have the same extent of the outer halo but he has revealed higher detail and features within that halo...anyway, we use what we have to best of our ability and be happy with that I guess? :)

Mike

[Stevec35]

Nicely done as usual Mike. I did the halo about a year ago. It took me 18.5 hours of OIII and I don't think I did it as well as you. Of course faster optics would help.

Cheers

Steve

http://members.pcug.org.au/~stevec/IC5148_STXL6303_RC14.htm

[SkyViking]

That's brilliant Mike, some very delicate detail in the main shell and the outer one looks intriguing; ghostly and indeed ultra faint! :)
It's truly fascinating how many of these faint PN outer shells that have been revealed in detail by amateurs in recent years.

[strongmanmike]

Yeah I remember yours now Steve, nice, it is a difficult object to process huh? :scared: :thumbsup:



Thanks SkyViking Sigmarson Olofsen :D

This was difficult to process, after heavy stretching the OIII was pretty bloody noisy, so then the noise filtering had to be done very carefully so as not to remove details but also and perhaps more importantly, not to add details or features that weren't there! I think I succeeded in this anyway...but I would love a 20" to make life easier :sadeyes: :lol:

Mike

[RickS]

Amen :D

[graham.hobart]

So Mike, you working on an Atlas of planetary Nebs?:D
Excellent as always.
Cheers
Graham

[strongmanmike]

Well, one day I would love a 24" F3 well corrected scope :jump:.....buuut not holding my breath on that one :rolleyes: :sad:



He he yeah, PN's are such fun and usually very beatiful little things to image, bit like butterflies (I'd imagine?) and it's been a bit of a side course for me lately huh?...I do love galaxies at heart though :love:

Mike

[sjastro]

Excellent image Mike.

Steven

[Slawomir]

There is definitely some mystical beauty and impalpable aroma emanating from the last burp of a dying star...great image Mike :thumbsup:

[strongmanmike]

Cheers Steven :)



Nicely put, I agree Slaw :thumbsup:

Mike

[Atmos]

That's an amazing job, for such a small target you have managed to capture a considerable amount of detail in there :P

[Bassnut]

Geez Mike, thats very nice indeed. Ive had a poke at this and couldnt touch the outer halo, hopelessly dim. Masterfull processing too, excellent detail. Im guessing your spending a fair bit of time on processing including serious upscaleing which is working very well. Youve upped effort lately IMO, right out of the the easy top 10. Nice to see, impressive.

[topheart]

Hi Mike,

You sure are popping out planetaries - like shelling peas!

I absolutely love your rendition of this one. I say - move over Don Goldman!

A perfect job!

Keep em coming!

Thanks,
Tim

[peter_4059]

Superb Mike. The inner bright neb has some amazing detail for a small target. Looks a lot like an eye ;)

[DJT]

Dang, that's beautiful. Keep these odd little PNs coming.:thumbsup:

[h0ughy]

wow,:2thumbs: :cool: :nerd: :bowdown: :atom:

[marco]

Another corker Mike! Amazingly enough I was just told about this object few days ago, a planetary nebula that is known since 1894 but no halo was found in a professional search in 1998. It seems Martin Pugh was the first one to first discover hints of a possible halo in 2012 (http://asterisk.apod.com/download/file.php?id=8608&mode=view) even if it was few months later in 2013 that Don Goldman confirmed the presence of the halo and showed it clearly: http://astrodonimaging.com/gallery/ic-5148-with-halo/
At the end a great story of what determined amateurs with a good equipment can achieve!
Great shot!
Clear skies
Marco

[SimmoW]

Wow, stunning Mike. Perfect simplicity of presentation.

[strongmanmike]

Thanks Marco, yes I saw those two images and used then for inspiration, Martin's I had a look at before the fact and thought I had achieved a great result, Don's I didn't see until after I was almost finished processing...his is amazing! So I was happy with my result overall :thumbsup: Driving back and forth to my observatory which isn't automated and hammering an object for three nights is a lot of fun (well...? :rolleyes:) when the results are good :D



Thanks a lot Simon :)

[strongmanmike]

Ahhhhh...:love: emoticons are our friends :)

[RB]

Mike that is Stunning !!!!
I keep coming back to this thread to have another look.
Had to just say how much I enjoy viewing it.

Thank you for sharing.

RB

[strongmanmike]

Thanks for the nice feedback guys! :D she is a wee little beauty huh?

Fred, no up scaling here and this is an 80% of full res crop too (sorry Marcus, just think it looks best at this display size ;)) with no dark frames used either! The AG12 + SXV694 gives a very useable image scale of 0.84"/pix so the 12" aperture and good sensitivity of the SX694 are quite formidable for a relatively small package :) ...the wide field scope who would be a long focal length RC :P

Mike

[Octane]

Sensational, Mike. So clean, too.

H

[Geoff45]

Stunning detail for such a tiny critter Mike. And smoooth.
Geoff

[Leonardo70]

Wonderful result . Great target.

All the best,
Leo

[strongmanmike]

Cheers H, G and L glad you enjoyed the view :)

M

[h0ughy]

didja get the last one - the atom - he he

[Somnium]

that is simply next level quality. great stuff

[strongmanmike]

Yeah yeah, you very funny man Sir Hough :rofl:....:lol:....:)...:question:. ...:rolleyes:



Thanks Aidan, glad you like it :thumbsup:

Mike

[Rex]

WOW! at that size it really is the cosmic Atom. Great detail and very nicely processed, very natural.

[strongmanmike]

Cheers Rex, glad you like it :thumbsup:

Mike

[IanP]

Awesome .. :bowdown:
Watch out- my next target .. so far I had it in the top-right-corner, but the plans are to have it in he middle :screwy: :bashcomp:

[strongmanmike]

Cheers Ian and wow, yours is so nicely Framed too, objects just look so boring when plonked smack in the middle of the frame :lol:...or is that a dust donut :question:

Mike

[Shiraz]

gosh that is a lovely image - really admire your handling of PNs, particularly the faint bits.

The seeing looks to have been very nice too, which makes for enjoyable processing.

[strongmanmike]

Hey cheers Ray :thumbsup: they really are a lot of fun to image and many can return good results in a single nights worth of imaging too, instant gratification :D Imaging globs is a bit similar but they lack the vibrant varied range of colours compared to PN's :)

Mike