Gum 41 HSO

[Placidus]

We previously mentioned that Gum 41, an HII region on the outskirts of the Running Chicken near Lambda Centauri, had precious little OIII but, unexpectedly, some SII.

A pleasing image in Hubble Palette with H-alpha mapped to green proved difficult, with intensely violet stars that were resistant to persuasion.

Here we present Gum 41 with H-alpha mapped to red, SII mapped to green, and what may be OIII but is perhaps just reflection nebulosity mapped to blue. We've cropped the field to approx 23 min arc, as there's not much interesting in OIII or SII apart from the central bright region.

Original image here (www.photos.smugmug.com/Category/Star-Forming-Regions/i-WF9Xsww/0/O/Gum%2041%20R%20Ha%204%2C%20G%20SII% 205%2C%20B%20OIII%209hrs.jpg)

The H-alpha was taken at first quarter, but the OIII and SII were taken under full moon, under annoyingly good 1.5 sec arc seeing. Sadly, there was nothing much to see! (There is a song about that).

We think that this is still an interesting image, despite the need for a sharp eye to find the OIII. It is certainly a warning not to try it at home.

H-alpha 4 hrs, OIII 9 hrs, SII 6hrs, in 1hr subs. Astrodon 3nM filters. Aspen CG16M on 20" PlaneWave.

[strongmanmike]

Well yes, with seeing that good and little signal coming down, I would probably have hammered another target that night :shrug:...like a galaxy :D

Never the less, an interesting exercise guys.

Nice work

Mike

[Atmos]

Quite an interesting area, I would have expected a lot more OIII considering the amount of SII there.
I think someone needs their mouth washed out with soap or the use of the word "annoyingly" :P

[RickS]

An interesting experiment, M&T!

[Peter Ward]

Ok I won't mention the fish :)....but....green stars? really?

[gregbradley]

An interesting target. Worth more time when the moon is gone.

Greg.

[Placidus]

Thanks, folks.

Well that went down like a Led Zeppelin. Perhaps this is one for H-alpha only (as previously posted), or for a space telescope with pin-point stars.

[strongmanmike]

Ha ha nah its good, a bit of time went in to that I know..gota experiment at times, not everything needs to be some perfect masterpiece to satisfy some percieved perfectionism or justify spendibg $million on an OTA. This hobby should be about fun and adventure and trying stuff..love it.:thumbsup:

Mike

[Placidus]

Thanks muchly for the kind and reassuring words, Mike.
We'd been working our way around the Lambda Centauri area, not quite making a mosaic as it's too big to cover the whole thing, and this was the last unexplored corner.

[multiweb]

Looks good Mike. Pleasing colors. :thumbsup:

[Placidus]

Thanks, Marc.

Here is a link to an ESO La Silla (www.eso.org/public/news/eso1413/) shot with a 2.2 metre scope, in HaRGB.

Our colours are of course completely different because we've mapped SII to green, and so forth, and theirs is the other way up, but we're quite pleased about the level of detail in our shot.

[Slawomir]

I like it M&T, in particular that mysterious purple haze around the central star...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cJunCsrhJjg

But more seriously, I think detail is exquisite and colours in the nebulosity are great :thumbsup:

[Placidus]

Thanks, Suavi.

We watched the Hendrix video. Liked the brightly coloured cape. Also relevant to violet haze is "Smoke on the water, fire in the sky" by Deep Purple.

[Ross G]

Another good looking photo Mike & Trush.

Again very sharp and great detail.

Ross.

[Placidus]

Thanks, Ross.