NGC 261 and friends in Ha

[Atmos]

It was about 4:30 am, M16 was just about to start hitting my tree line to the west and I needed something new to point the scope at. Did a quick search around the south east skies and found a group of NGC nebulae quite near to the SCP. Being cold and lazy, didn't put much effort in and just left it to its own devices for the next two hours.

Reasonably happy with whats in the region after just shy of two hours; 11x600s. There is a VERY evident light leakage that is no doubt caused by the flood light behind me (quite bright sodium lamp for the government units next door). Usually not an issue but having since changed some adapters I need to plug some holes in my CFW, thinking Duct Tape because its awesome :P

Besides the very distracting light leakage (~about 1 ADU per minute), I am happy with how its turned out. Done very little processing, little bit of noise reduction and background darkening. There is a surprising amount in the area, probably more hidden under the bright streak too. It does not appear to be an overly imaged area, possibly due to being so close to the SCP. I wasn't sure how my guiding was going to hold up up there isn't much in the area but I have still managed a FWHM of 2.1" (1.5 pixels).

High res on Astrobin (http://www.astrobin.com/full/253304/0/)

Not sure if I'll be able to do much in the way of AP over the next few weeks, house sitting for some friends and I know that if I setup in the backyard I'll wake up to bits of USB cables and camera strewn all over the yard :P

[gregbradley]

Very nice Colin. What gear did you use?

Greg.

[Retrograde]

That's really interesting Colin - I didn't even know these objects existed. Well done on this!
I hope you are going to add some more data when time allows - I'd be very interested to see how this object progresses.

[Atmos]

Thanks Greg.

Used the Sky Rover 130mm, the QHY22 (ICX694) and the EQ6 (hoping my DDM60 arrives towards the end of July!).

[Atmos]

Neither did I Pete! I took a 10s test image and then just went with it to see what was in the area. I did consider moving up (in the frame) as it looks like there may be more up there but I figured I'd see if there was any faint stuff down the bottom.

I do want to collect more data on this, may be better in another three months when it is better positioned. Currently transits meridian at 6:45am.

[RickS]

A cool field, Colin.

[Atmos]

It does seem like an interesting field, one that I do want to revisit in the coming months. Plan on doing it when my new mount arrives so that I can effectively run closer to sky limited (30min subs). As there isn't anything bright in the area, there is nothing to blow out.

At the moment much of the nebulosity is about 140 ADU with a background of ~115 ADU. I may have to revisit those numbers though when I retake my bias (started running at -35° last night) as they look a bit off.

It looks like there could be a reasonably amount of much fainter nebulosity in the area.

[Somnium]

really nice FOV Colin. really interesting. some more data might clean it up a bit.

[Placidus]

Looking very good. :thumbsup:

This area is especially interesting if you add OIII, because there is often extreme topographic separation between the Ha and OIII, so it comes out looking like a box of chocolates wrapped in pieces of coloured foil.

[Atmos]

Thanks Aidan, it is quite an interesting field. Needing a lot more data and definitely longer subs.



Thanks :) Going to have to do the OIII as you suggest, considering the area, I have a feeling that it may be quite devoid of SII but I'd have to do some digging first :)