The Chick and the Bird Bath. IC 2872 and Gum 39

[Placidus]

This 36x36 min arc area is a field or so to the NW of Lambda Centauri.

Big one here. (www.mikeberthonjones.smugmug.com/Category/Star-Forming-Regions/i-97zcVHp/0/O/The%20Chick%20Ha%207%20OIII%209%20S II%208hrs.jpg)


The bottom half of the image, Gum 39, is an oyster-shell shaped bird bath half filled with water. The top half, IC 2872, is a new-born chick (presumably an offspring of the parent Running Chicken), with two bulbous eyes complete with nictitating membrane, and a very sharp beak complete with egg-tooth.

Fainter than it's mum, the area is harder to photograph, but is still very pretty. We particularly like the shock front that forms the bottom edge of the oyster shell.

Green: Ha 7hrs, Blue: OIII 9hrs, Red: SII 8hrs. Aspen CG16M on 20" PlaneWave. Moon about 2/3 full. South up, 0.55"arc/pixel.

There is a hint of a nasty echo in the blue channel, which I understand to be related to a fault in the camera's double-sampling electronics, but we are too possessive to consider sending it away to be fixed.

We've gone to considerable lengths to subdue the usual magenta haloes that you get with Hubble palette. The SII and OIII were very faint, and that made for difficult processing. We're quite pleased with the results given that the maths is all mine, not out of a box. Like a dog climbing a ladder, the miracle is that it is done at all.

There are many subtle dust lanes and other shapes to explore. Please enjoy.

Very best,
Mike

[Geoff45]

Nice one Mike and Trish. I really like the colour pallette. It's the first time I've seen anything resembling a chicken in this region. BTW, Is that a cunningly added chicken's head below the big chick in the main pic or is it a duck?
Geoff

[Andy01]

Lol, love the description and it's a finely crafted image too, very 3D.
Nice to see all the detail in that rarely imaged stand alone region.
Greens not really my thing but it's probably just me so I'll leave colour comment at that.
I like the neutral stars though!
Well done guys :)

[Atmos]

Really nice MnT! The chicken looks like it is really straining its head, mighty uncomfortable if you ask me :P

[strongmanmike]

Most simply won't realise just how excellent this image is...they are all so used to it being part of a much wider view of the running chicken...excellent guys, excellent :thumbsup:

Mike

[Placidus]

Thanks Geoff. I think the tiny duck-like blob in the very centre is an artifact, cause unknown.



Thanks Andy. We have three real chooks (ISA browns). They love their greens, which provide folic acid and other vitamins.



Cheers, Colin.



Thanks muchly, Mike. We're greatly encouraged.

[niharika]

Great detail and amazing to explore in the full resolution. Excellent image Mike & Trish.

[Slawomir]

Pleasing and balanced colours and structures have been skilfully presented - in short, another great image M&T :thumbsup:

[Paul Haese]

An interesting looking image MnT. When I first viewed it I could not remember having seen it before. There is a nice depth to the image with lots of thin dark nebula visible.

[RickS]

Excellent view of such a small FOV, M&T. Also a description that I can visualise this time. I think the problem is my lack of imagination rather than your descriptions :)

It occurs to me that perhaps it's not turtles, but chickens all the way down?

Cheers,
Rick.

[marc4darkskies]

Beautiful M&T! And a very convincing chicken too!

Cheers, Marcus

[Placidus]

Thanks, Raki!



Cheers, Suavi. We are encouraged.



Thanks, Paul. We're at that tricky stage where we've seen the Eiffel tower and Edinburgh castle, and it's time to visit some of the suburban sights.



Thanks muchly Rick. There's still one outer suburban bit of the Lambda Centauri nebula, well south of this one, that we want to visit.

Big chooks have lesser chooks upon their backs to scratch 'em. And lesser chooks have lesser still, and so on, at higher energy.



Hi, Marcus. We're thrilled that you like it.

Best,
M & T

[multiweb]

Awesome field Mike. Super deep. Looks like you had a good run at the farm. :thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup:

[Placidus]

Thanks muchly, Marc. Actually that was close to the end of the good run. We seem to have developed an intermittent fault, manifesting as a comms errors between the computer and the rest of the observatory equipment. We unplugged and replugged all the relevant cables, speculating that it could be high contact resistance and cooling weather. Got a good 9 hours of data after that, and confirmed that H-alpha region RCW 79 in Centaurus has negligible OIII or SII.

[Shiraz]

really interesting region - hadn't seen it presented like this before. As you say, there is plenty to see and the processing has resulted in an image that is really quite restful to look at. Very nice work.

[Placidus]

Thanks lots, Ray.

I just had a hunt around and found Stuart Thompson has imaged it in NB in almost exactly the same framing, but the other way up.

Best,
Mike

[Ryderscope]

Ahh, yes - well done!
Note to self to finish my work on this object.
Very nice indeed.

[Placidus]

Thanks, Rodney.

Looking forward to seeing your rendition.

Best,
M