NGC1261 Globular in Horologium

[Ryderscope]

Image of NGC 1261, a quite little globular lurking about in the constellation of Horologium. It happened to be conveniently located for me to use as a test run following the installation of a focal reducer now attached to my Tak TSA120. I think I have the reducer to camera spacing pretty close for now so will try this out further and see how we go. I have decided that one can only fiddle with these things so much.

Data was captured in sets of 90 second subs (approximately 45 each for LRGB) so that I managed to get the full data set in one night. Have cropped the frame approximately 60% from source data.

Image capture with SGP Pro and processing in Pixinsight.

Link to image on Astrobin here. (http://astrob.in/full/272246/0/)

Comments and feedback welcome.

RW

[gaseous]

Really nice! Love glob images - should be more of them.

[RickS]

What a pretty little glob, Rodney!

[alpal]

It is a beautiful globular -

a Hubble close-up here:

http://cseligman.com/text/atlas/ngc1261.jpg

cheers
Allan

[gregbradley]

Very nice and excellent processing.

Greg.

[Ryderscope]

Thanks for the kind comments everyone. The scattering of cooler suns (i.e. yellow/gold/orange) provides some interesting contrast for the image.

[strongmanmike]

Nice one Rod, good colour and a nice 3D feel. Although the big bright buggers get focused on most, these things are everywhere :)

Mike

[Ryderscope]

Thanks Mike, true that they are everywhere. I once started a project to try and observe all of the main ones visually but ran out of steam.

[Placidus]

Very nicely done, Rodney.

The (very beautiful) differences in colour from core to periphery make me want to learn more about how globulars work.

[Ryderscope]

Thanks MnT. Agreed that globulars can make for interesting study apart from being fascinating objects to observe. I like the fact that they are ancient objects formed within a couple of billion years of the Big Bang. Our little globular in this image could be as much as 12 billion years old. Would be rather cramped in there though and not much chance for planetary systems to have developed.

[Regulus]

That's a nice image Rod. The colours a very pleasing too. Nicely done.

Trev

[Atmos]

Nicely resolved Rodney! It is one of those GC that benefit from longer focal length than a refractor. The colour is good, makes me think of the song "Golden Brown" for whatever reason :)

[Ryderscope]

Thanks for the feedback Trev and Colin. Agreed about the focal length as I had to crop this one down substantially. Still managed to scrub up ok.

[MmmmBalf]

Very nice shot. There's just something about globulars that fascinates me more than any other DSO. I'm surprised there's not more photos of them.

[Geoff45]

Nicely done Rodney.
Geoff

[gregbradley]

A very pleasing glob shot. They really have their own approach don't they?

Greg

[Ryderscope]

Many thanks for the feedback everyone. Much appreciated.