Maurice
22-07-2016, 10:22 PM
Well... Menzel 3 (Mz3) in Norma might look like your garden variety ant, but its not your garden variety planetary nebula.
With some of the highest gas outflow velocities of any planetary in its class (3.5million km/hr), its still a bit of a mystery with formations resembling those of Eta Carinae. One theory is that it is a close binary system with the companion at an 'earth to sun distance' and the gravitational effects on the outflows result in the shapes we see.
The attached image is 9x600s in Ha taken with my new (to me) GSO RC14 at 2850mm FL with a QHY9 camera + EQ8. Seeing was good with the image stack at 1.9" FWHM unprocessed. Guiding with an OAG + ASI 120MM camera. Image dark subtracted but not flat fielded.
I've been waiting to take more data, but our Melbourne weather has been less than encouraging, so the result is somewhat noisy..
It will be a real challenge to get good colour data for this object as the few trial subs I took with G & B filters did not show much at all.
Not sure what the full frame attached here will look like, but compression will no doubt kill it a bit. Two versions attached - One with unprocessed stars (only stretched) & one with processed stars. The planetary was processed separately & overlayed afterwards.
regards
Maurice
PS Forgot to mention - measured size in Ha from the image is about 90"x12"
With some of the highest gas outflow velocities of any planetary in its class (3.5million km/hr), its still a bit of a mystery with formations resembling those of Eta Carinae. One theory is that it is a close binary system with the companion at an 'earth to sun distance' and the gravitational effects on the outflows result in the shapes we see.
The attached image is 9x600s in Ha taken with my new (to me) GSO RC14 at 2850mm FL with a QHY9 camera + EQ8. Seeing was good with the image stack at 1.9" FWHM unprocessed. Guiding with an OAG + ASI 120MM camera. Image dark subtracted but not flat fielded.
I've been waiting to take more data, but our Melbourne weather has been less than encouraging, so the result is somewhat noisy..
It will be a real challenge to get good colour data for this object as the few trial subs I took with G & B filters did not show much at all.
Not sure what the full frame attached here will look like, but compression will no doubt kill it a bit. Two versions attached - One with unprocessed stars (only stretched) & one with processed stars. The planetary was processed separately & overlayed afterwards.
regards
Maurice
PS Forgot to mention - measured size in Ha from the image is about 90"x12"