Beginnings of a Lambda Centauri mosaic

[Placidus]

The top right of this image is from the last week or so, with 8hrs each Ha and SII, and 10 hrs of OIII. The bright star is lambda Centauri.

The bottom left is from a couple years ago, with just 2 hours each (so centre is 10-12 hrs) per channel. You can see the difference in that the bottom left shows artefacts (hot pixels, cosmic rays, etc) which are not present at top right.

The variety of texture in just this little patch is amazing. All the way from sharp shock fronts, strong in SII (the point of the new stuff at top right), via fox-fur nebula-like turbulent stuff, to the generally very smooth OIII, which ends abruptly at the strongest shock front.

Those with sharp eyes will see the up-ended body of a lion, head down, bum up, at the right-hand edge of the top section.

Mostly taken at or near full moon, using 3nM Astrodon filters.

Field is 58 min arc high, North up, 0.55 sec arc/pixel. Aspen CG16M on 20" PlaneWave CDK on MI-750 fork. 32hrs total exposure in 1 hr unbinned subs. All processing as usual using our own GoodLook 64.

Should it ever stop raining, we hope to complete the mosaic, and get some more data at the bottom left, to get rid of those artifacts, but this will have to do for now.

Big one here (www.mikeberthonjones.smugmug.com/Category/Star-Forming-Regions/i-LN2CBNf/0/O/J%20Lambda%20Centauri%2032hrs%20NB% 20mosaic.jpg)

Best,
Mike and Trish

[Mighty_oz]

Great shot, will be fantastic when you are done, even the small version looks good :)

[DJScotty]

Beautiful shot M&T.
I know I keep saying it but that is Hubble quality!

Great work :thumbsup:

[Slawomir]

Looks outstanding already M&T, I look forward to seeing completed project :hi:

[alpal]

Hi Mike and Trish,
wonderful colours & detail.
I can't see any running chicken just yet - LOL.
I look forward to the completed mosaic.

cheers
Allan

[Ryderscope]

A fascinating journey through this image MnT. Wonderful detail and colour. One could write an entire novel around the characters that we see lurking there.

[Atmos]

Really nice MnT! Really smooth, lovely detail and wonderful stars :) I was scanning through the image on my iPhone, zoomed in. Saw this bright line that I thought may have been one of those satellite trails you mentioned and then got shot in the face by a LASER! That bright star ;)

[Placidus]

Thanks, Marcus!



Cheers, Scott, you are too kind. We wouldn't have needed such long exposure if the moon and clouds went away at the same time.



Thanks for the encouragement, Suavi. We'll get stuck into it.



Thanks, Allan. We think the lion at top right and the fox-cat at bottom left scared the chook away.



Hi, Rodney, Delighted that you like it. We can't wait to have a crack at the bit further West that you've just done so superbly in H-alpha. That really does look like a baby chick.




Thanks, Colin. We must remember to keep the trigger guard on that thing. A "problem" with the CDK scope seems to be that it produces ugly sequin-like or disc-like stars rather than pretty Christmas-Card ones, but at least that means that staring at a super-bright mag 3 one like this for 29 hours doesn't just flood the image. May have made a hole in the chip, though.

Very best,
Mike and Trish

[vlazg]

Can't resist, wheres the fox cat :D

Lovely image, can't wait to see the end product

[Placidus]

Thanks, George,

The Fox-Cat is in the lower left corner, rotated 90 deg.

The face is ambiguously that of a cat and a pointy-snouted fox. The eyes, ears, and nose are very convincing. The mouth is complicated because it has found a Pythonesque dismembered "This Way..." arm and hand pointing to our left. The tail is extremely bushy and unambiguously that of a fox.

Yesterday at the farm we saw a fox in a Mexican stand-off with two huge wedge-tailed eagles, fighting over some bit of something dead and nasty in the long grass. The fox looked very like this one.

[multiweb]

Big project Mike. Looks great. Lots of details and depth. I like the palette as well. :thumbsup:

[codemonkey]

Looking awesome so far, guys!

[vlazg]

Got it, :thanx:
Like the cheshire cat in wonderland :D

[rustigsmed]

Looking really nice M and T, I love this region great idea to go mosaic to capture the wider chicken! Also it appears your setup has a similar fov to my setup.

Cheers

Rusty

[Placidus]

Thanks muchly Marc, Lee, George, Rusty,

Last night was cloudy but the night before we got more hours on the bottom left, getting rid of all the artifacts. Up to 38 hrs now.

Best,
M & T

[RickS]

Amazing details, M&T!

[strongmanmike]

Yep see all that...we must have similar imaginations Mike, I see almost everything you do in these things...scary :scared2:

Coming along nicely guys, the finished mozaic should be quite something :thumbsup:

Mike

[Placidus]

Thanks muchly, Rick.



Yeay! Delighted you can see it too. Thanks, Mike.

Best,
M & T