NGC 1360 The Magic Egg in Fornax

[strongmanmike]

Man, it's been 2 months since my last image :scared: and this one was scrapped together over 7 nights since then through breaks in clouds, under varying amounts of Moon, through high Cirrus and a couple of almost wasted nights due to Murphy and his clouds.

Seeing was good on one night when I was gathering the Halpha but the rest were varying levels of average to below average :sadeyes:

Anyway, after thinking how am I going to get a decent image out of this piece meal data....I am actually pretty happy with how it came together :D

This beautiful magic egg of a planetary has two intriguing Ha jets emanating from each of its ends and not really this well shown in most other images on the net, so the good seeing that night deffinitely helped. The nebula floats nicely against a great carpet of distant background galaxies of all shapes and sizes too, so shame the seeing wasn't as good for the Lum gathering :doh:.

Cool things to look for when panning around:

1) A couple'a cool ring galaxies
2) An even cooler and much more distant version of this famous Hubble Tadpole Galaxy (http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap100926.html)

Have fun :thumbsup:

NGC 1360 The Magic Egg in Fornax (http://www.pbase.com/strongmanmike2002/image/162116083/original)

[stevous67]

That is simply outstanding Mike. The jet is really knotted. When there are so many galaxies in one small field of view, it leaves me thinking that there must be a countless number of civilisations out there.

Its been 5 months for me Mike, but I'm tinkering away always in the shed getting my gear running jqust right. Its not far away now before Terry and I are up and running with our remote observatories. But in the meanwhile, its very painful just watching nice astro images come through.

Steve :thumbsup:

[Atmos]

Nicely captured Mike! Small and dim little sucker :)

[Slawomir]

It is a fine image Mike, to say the least. It compares very favourably with images takes with much larger telescopes and from top of mountains :thumbsup:

Hopefully we will be treated with your images more often :)

P.S. I think I will need to use technology to help me in identifying which one is the Tadpole Galaxy...

[multiweb]

Wow! Superb shot! Love the field and all the background galaxies. Very interesting/peculiar object too. One for the cool wall. :thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup:

[TR]

I really like the subtle details in this object. It's looks like a translucent orb hanging in space is something interesting inside. It is a great looking photo.

Terry

[Ryderscope]

I agree with you about the clouds and weather Mike. Seems like it is the same all across the state (having said that I manage to capture four hours of data last night).

This is quite a special image and that OTA is working especially well. Interesting structures across the 'shell' of the object with a slight magenta overlay near the core star. Lovely.

I was interested in the red material at the 2 O'Clock position and found this entry in Wikipedia "Reddish matter, believed to have been ejected from the original star before its final collapse, is visible in images. I think your description is much more informative.

p.s. How come nobody has made any egg jokes yet? :D

[Andy01]

Nice one Mike - Havn't seen that object before :thumbsup: very cool :cool:

[topheart]

Eggcellent image Mike!!

You must stop going on cruises around the Pacific if you want to be more productive.....:lol:

However when you do lay one, it is always first class!!

Cheers,
Tim

[peter_4059]

Great image Mike. That's one I haven't seen before. It's an interesting field.

[RickS]

An intriguing object, Mike, captured, processed and described with your usual dramatic flair :thumbsup: :)

[PRejto]

Bravo Mike. You triumphed over the weather gods in spite of their best efforts to foil you (and all of us!).

Peter

[Octane]

That is simply awesome.

Never heard or seen this one before.

Beautiful work, mate.

H

[LewisM]

My goodness, it's not neon pink! :P

Wonderful image Mike - truly superb. Well done.

Looks like you know how to collimate pretty well too :) :rofl: :D

[Rac]

Very nice. Never seen that before.

[Stevec35]

An outstanding picture of this object Mike - one of the best I've seen. I'm surprised that so many people haven't seen it before. I thought it was well known.

Cheers

Steve

[Placidus]

Hi, Mike,

Magnificent. A beautiful piece of work.

We dug out our old shot from about 8 years ago. Embarrassing. We called it the "space embryo", because it looked like a little guy (intriguingly wearing a backpack and carrying a baseball bat) inside an egg, with a stringy bit of vitelline membrane at one end. You've gone far deeper and far sharper, and shown that there's a stringy bit at both ends.

Nice to see you back in the saddle, too.

[h0ughy]

viewing this on my 48" is superb - love it

[Rod771]

Cool! What a fascinating object, nice work Mike! :thumbsup:

[astronobob]

Fantastic Image there Mike.
Interesting object, as a PNeb it doesn't have the usual characteristics of an outline or shell around its circumference - quite a diffused appearance to it but none the less a great target!
Really well done on grabbing the central details within, lots going on in there & the jets are unique - top shelf :thumbsup:

[phomer]

Michael,

That has to be one of the most amazing objects I have never seen before.

Regards

Paul

[Flugel88]

Very well captured Michael was well worth the 7 nights of bother.You managed to get both of those red jets blasting out the ends in nice detail.

I have been trying to image this with my gso14 but so far my results have been to embarrassing to post.:ashamed:
I really am jealous of your fast scope that punches so deep with such great clarity.

[alpal]

Great capture Mike,
it's right up there with the best images of this planetary nebula.

cheers
Allan

[Bassnut]

Thats a cracker Mike. I had a go myself and not even close. The red feature came out very well. Excellent hardcore NF imaging :tasdevil:, thats what its about, zooming in :thumbsup:

[strongmanmike]

Hey wow, holy crap guys, so glad you all like it :love:

I read all your posts but too many to reply to :lol: but thanks heaps for the feedback, nice to be back in front of the processing screen after a bit of a break :)

Yes I see that capturing the red jets at both ends of the egg as well as the reddish central glow is pretty rare for this object, so those bits I am particularly happy about :)

The mega distant Tadpole galaxy clone is to the left of the blue egg and just to the right of the bright star.

Egg jokes huh?...ok: Two eggs had just got married, it was their wedding night, Mrs Egg put on a nice sexy negligee and lay on the bed, Mr Egg came in to the bedroom after having a shower and saw Mrs Egg lying there...well he froze and exclaimed "Oh no!..the last time I was this hard, someone hit me on the head with a spoon!"

:help:

Mike

[marc4darkskies]

What's this exquisite little gem?! Gorgeous Mike and well worth your persistence! :thumbsup:

Good to see you back in the saddle again - 2 months is a long time for you to be in hiatus!

[strongmanmike]

Yeah cheers Marcus, I am surprised so many people haven't heard of this though and although subtle, as you say it is a lovely gem of an object plus it sits in the middle of the well imaged Fornax galaxy region too :shrug:

Yeah 2 months is not as bad as a year I guess :eyepop:...you just getting old mate ;)...and a grand daughter probably doesn't help with the imaging either :lol:

Mike

[rustigsmed]

Premium! loving this object and shot mike so well done! Russ

[strongmanmike]

Thanks heaps Russ :thumbsup: we can sometimes tend to forget to contemplate the real beauty of what it is that we capture and I recon this object has a strange soothing wonder about it, the Universe is full of these odd but beautiful objects, they are everywhere up there.

Mike

[gvanhau]

Beautiful object and nicely photographed.
Also like the faint galaxies all arround.

Geert

[strongmanmike]

Good to hear Geert, I love the galaxies too, shame the seeing wasn't so good for the Lum, that would have brought out more of the really tiny faint ones that abound in this particular area :)

Mike

[rustigsmed]

very true Mike - especially PN's the only shame is most appear so small.

[strongmanmike]

That was my feeling once too but with a bit of care, some half decent gear and more importantly the right image scale with a small modest focal length...worthwhile images of many of them are certainly still achievable :thumbsup:

Mike

[Shiraz]

Wow. that is really beautiful and technically excellent.

The Ha jets are an intriguing bonus - how astounding this universe really is.

[strongmanmike]

Thank you very much Ray, wish the conditions had been more favourable for all of it.... but such is life :)

Mike

[bimberi]

A very unique and beautiful image, Mihaly.
Good work with that galaxy too!

[jenchris]

Better than a Faberge egg.
I've not heard of it before.

[suma126]

great image :thumbsup:

[strongmanmike]

Well, well, Otto Struve! Thank you my friend and glad to finally see a post from you on IIS! :thumbsup: Kurva :D





Cheers guys, nice ain't she? :thumbsup:

Mike

[Camelopardalis]

Dunno how I missed this before :shrug:

What a cracker Mike :thumbsup: love the unusual objects out there!

[andyc]

Cracking image Mike, its a lovely shell, and no yolk. Seems sharp and not scrambled at all. A great addition to your photo album(en) :D

Not seen many images of this, and the jets are unusual and pretty. Thanks for the views!

[strongmanmike]

Cheers Andy and Dunk...you guys, just...?.. crack me up sometimes :face: glad to see some of you coming out of your shells and enjoying some eggcellent quality IIS humour too :D

Mike